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Biomed. 

Lib. 

HB 

863 
D849L 

1892 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE 


^  ^  Xi^e  anb  Mvitinos 


OF 


THOMAS   R.  MALTHUS; 


BY 


CHAS.  R.   DRYSDALE,  M.D 


London  ; 
Oko.   Standktno,  7  X-  9  FiNRiu'in-   Stt^i:i-:t,     Fj.O. 

Skconi)   l.!r)i'riON.-    Is9:2. 


Since  1877,  when  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England  in  his  cliarge  to 
the  jury  pronounced  the  discovery  of  Malthus  to  be  an  irj-efragable 
truth,  a  vast  amount  of  literature  has  appeared  upon  the  population 
question.  The  conclusion  come  to  by  many  of  the  most  recent  writers 
has  been  in  accord  with  that  pithy  expression  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
where  he  sa^-s:  "Every  one  has  a  right  to  live.  We  will  suppose  this 
granted.  But  no  one  has  a  right  to  bring  children  into  life  to  be  sup- 
ported by  other  people.  Whoever  means  to  stand  upon  the  first  of 
these  rights  must  renounce  all  pretension  to  the  last."  Mr.  Cotter 
Morison,  a  distinguished  writer,  says,  in  his  work  entitled  The  Service 
of  Man:  ''The  criminality  of  producing  children  whom  one  has  no 
reasonable  probabilit}"  of  being  able  to  keep,  must  in  time  be  seen  in  its 
true  light,  as  one  of  the  most  unsocial  and  selfish  proceedings  of  which 
a  man  nowadays  is  capable.  If  only  the  devastating  torrent  of  children 
could  be  arrested  for  a  few  j-ears,  it  would  bring  untold  relief."  Sir 
William  Windej^er,  of  New  South  Wales,  in  a  judgment  delivered  in 
1888,  concerning  a  Malthusian  work,  says:  "  It  is  idle  to  preach  to  the 
masses  the  necessity  of  deferred  marriage  and  of  a  celibate  life  during 
tlie  heyday  of  passion.  .  .  To  use  and  not  abuse,  to  direct  and  con- 
trol in  its  operation  any  God-given  faculty,  is  the  true  aim  of  man,  the 
true  object  of  all  morality."  The  Rev.  'Mv.  Whatham,  in  a  pamphlet 
entitled  Neo-Mcdthitsianisni,  says:  "It  becomes  the  duty  of  every 
thoughtful  man  and  woman  to  think  out  some  plan  to  stop  or  even 
check  this  advancing  tide  of  desolation ;  and  the  only  plan,  to  my 
thinking,  that  is  at  all  workable  is  artificial  prevention  of  child-birth." 
Professor  Mantegazza,  Senator  of  Italy,  says,  in  his  Elements  of  Hygiene, 
to  those  affected  with  hereditary  diseases :  "  Love,  but  do  not  beget 
children."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Haweis  says,  in  Winged  Words  :  "  Over- 
population is  one  of  the  problems  of  the  age.  The  old  blessing  of  "in- 
crease and  multiply,'  suitable  for  a  sj)arsely  peopled  land,  has  become 
the  great  curse  of  our  crowded  centres."  INIr.  ^Montague  Cookson  sa3's : 
''  The  limitation  of  the  family  is  as  mucli  the  duty  of  married  persons 
as  the  observance  of  chastity  is  the  duty  of  those  who  remain  un- 
married." Professor  Huxley,  the  Bishop  of  Manchester,  Mr.  Leonard 
Courtney,  Dr.  William  Ogle,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  Have 
all  recently  endorsed  the  truth  of  the  jNIalthusian  law  of  population, 
which,  as  Mr.  Elley  Finch  has  truly  said,  "is.  in  company  with  the 
Newtonian  law  of  gravitation,  the  most  important  discovery  ever  made." 

CHARLES  R.  DRYSDALE,  M.D. 
.?.?  Sackville -street,  Piccadllli/.  T.nvdon,  Tr, 
October,  1H92. 


Lie    ■ 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS      r^i'L/qi^. 


OP 


??^ 


THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS. 


A  GREAT  deal  has  been  said  in  Courts  of  Law  during  the 
last  two  years  about  the  Malthusian  principle  of  popula- 
tion. The  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England  has  pronounced  that 
it  is  an  irrefragable  truth,  and  that  all  parties  who  have  studied 
such  questions  know,  since  the  days  of  the  Eev.  T.  R.  Malthus, 
that  the  great  cause  of  indigence  is  the  tendency  that  popu- 
lation has  to  increase  faster  than  agriculture  can  furnish  food. 
And  yet  we  have  serious  doubts  whether  one  out  of  a  thousand 
of  the  population  of  the  British  Islands  knows  who  Mr.  Malthus 
was,  or,  indeed,  whether  he  was  a  Roman,  or  a  citizen  of  mo- 
dern Europe,  at  all.  It  is,  therefore,  we  are  convinced,  very 
important  to  let  his  countrymen  know  that  Thomas  Robert 
Malthus  was  an  Englishman  ;  that  he  was  a  denizen  of  the 
19th  century ;  and  that  he  lived  most  part  of  his  life  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  London, 

Thomas  Robert  Malthus  was  bom  at  the  Rookery,  near 
Dorking,  in  Surrey,  in  1766.  Those  who  are  interested  in  the 
matter  will  do  well  to  make  a  pilgrimage,  as  we  have  done,  to 
the  romantic  birth-place  of  the  discoverer  of  the  law  of  popu- 
lation, the  greatest  (if  we  measure  discoveries  by  their  effect 
on  human  happiness)  ever  made.  Malthus'  father  was  an  able 
man,  a  friend  and  correspondent  of  the  noble  and  unfortunate 
J.  J.  Rousseau,  and  one  of  his  executors.  Thomas  Robert  was 
his  second  son,  and,  as  a  boy,  evinced  so  much  ability  that  his 
father  kept  him  at  home  and  superintended  his  education  him- 
self. The  son  repaid  his  father's  care,  and  had  awakened  in 
him  that  spirit  of  independence  and  love  of  truth  which  were 
ever  afterwards  the  characteristics  of  his  mind.  He  had  two 
tutors,  in  addition  to  his  father,  both  men  of  genius — Richard 
Graves  and  Gilbert  Wakefield — the  former  the  author  of  the 
*'  Spiritual  Quixote,"  the  latter  the  correspondent  of  Fox,  and 
well  known  in  his  day  as  a  violent  democratic  writer  and 
politician. 


Z  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

In  1784,  when  22  years  of  age,  T.  E.  Malthus  weni,  to  Cam 
bridge ;  and,  in  1797,  became  a  Fellow  of  Jesus  Collegb 
After  this  he  took  orders,  and  for  a  time  officiated  in  a  small 
parish  near  his  father's  house,  in  Surrey.  In  1798,  appeareu 
his  first  printed  work,  which  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. It  is  entitled  "  An  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Population, 
as  it  affects  the  future  Improvement  of  Society ;  with  Eemarks 
on  the  Speculations  of  Mr.  Godwin,  Mr.  Condorcet,  and  other 
Writers.'' 

The  writer  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  from  whom  these 
details  of  Malthus'  life  are  taken,  informs  us  that  the  book  was 
received  with  some  surprise,  and  excited  considerable  atten- 
tion, as  beinoj  an  attempt  to  overturn  the  jDrevalent  theory  of 
political  optimism,  and  to  refute,  upon  philosoiDhical  principles, 
the  speculations  then  so  much  in  vogue,  as  to  the  indefinite 
perfectibility  of  human  institutions.  In  this  remarkable  essay 
the  general  principle  of  population,  which  Wallace,  Hume, 
and  others  had  very  distinctly  enunciated  before  him,  though 
without  foreseeing  the  consequences  that  might  be  deduced 
from  it,  was  clearly  expounded ;  and  some  of  the  important 
conclusions  to  which  it  leads  in  regard  to  the  probable  im- 
provement of  human  society  were  likewise  stated  and  explained; 
but  his  illustrations  were  not  sufficient,  and  he,  therefore, 
sought  in  travel  further  confirmation  of  his  theories. 

In  1799  he  visited  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Eussia,  and,  after 
the  peace  of  Amiens,  France  ;  in  which  countries  he  busily 
collected  all  the  data  he  could  bearing  upon  his  researches. 
In  1815  he  was  api3ointed  to  the  professorship  of  political 
economy  and  modern  history  at  Haileybury,  near  London, 
which  chair  he  occupied  until  his  death  in  1834,  at  the  age  of 
70.  He  left  behind  him  one  son  and  one  daughter.  The  son 
is,  we  believe,  still  alive,  or  was  so  a  few  years  ago. 

The  account  given  by  Mr.  Malthus  of  the  way  in  which  he 
discovered  the  law  of  population  is  to  this  effect.  His  father, 
Mr.  Daniel  Malthus,  a  man  of  romantic  and  somewhat  san- 
guine character,  had  espoused  warmly  the  doctrines  of  the 
great  writers  Condorcet  and  Godwin,  with  respect  to  the  per- 
fectibility of  man,  to  which  the  sound  sense  of  the  son  was 
alwaj'^s  opposed ;  and  when  the  subject  had  been  very  fre- 
quently discussed  between  them,  and  the  son  had  always 
objected  to  Godwin's  views,  on  account  of  the  tendency  of 
population  to  increase  faster  than  subsistence,  he  was  asked  by 
his  father  to  put  down  in  writing  his  views  on  this  point.  The 
result  was  the  Essay  on  Population  ;  and  his  father  was  so  much 


OF   THOMAS  R.  MALTHU8.  8 

struck  with  the  value  of  the  arguments,  that  he  recommended 
his  son  to  publish  it. 
"  In  the  first  edition  of  this  work  he  principally  deals  with 
the  views  of  Condorcet  and  Godwin  ;  but  on  his  return  from 
the  Continent,  where  he  had  collected  ample  materials,  the 
state  and  prospects  of  the  poor  became  the  prominent  features 
of  the  second  edition,  which  appeared  in  two  volumes,  in  1805. 

The  latter  years  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Malthus  were  passed  in 
the  midst  of  his  family,  in  the  performance  of  his  professional 
-and  professorial  duties,  and  in  the  editing  of  the  various  editions 
of  his  work  and  other  treatises  on  political  economy.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  views  enunciated  in  his  Essay  on  Population 
l3ecame  known,  his  fame  was  extended.  Most  of  the  statesmen 
of  his  time,  and  the  whole  of  the  eminent  political  economists 
of  Great  Britain,  adopted  his  opinions ;  and  thus  the  waj^  was 
prepared  for  the  adoption  of  a  better  system  of  poor-law  relief 
than  the  one  which  at  that  time  was  ruining  England.  On  the 
•Continent,  too,  and  indeed  wherever  science  extended,  his  views 
were  adopted  by  the  foremost  writers  on  political  economy. 
He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  most  eminent  scientific 
societies  abroad,  such  as  the  Institute  of  France  and  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Berlin.  At  home,  he  founded  the  Political 
Economy  Club  and  the  Statistical  Society. 

In  the  bther  departments  of  the  science  of  Political  Economy 
Malthus  was  a  distinguished  writer.  He  was,  in  company  with 
Dr.  West,  a  promulgator  of  the  theory  of  rent,  first  mooted,  it 
seems,  by  a  Scotchman,  Dr.  Anderson,  a  contemporary  of  Adam 
Smith.  Ricardo,  the  eminent  political  economist,  has  acknow- 
ledged his  deep  obligations  to  Malthus,  for  his  exposition  of 
this  theory. 

The  great  Principle  of  Population  has  been  examined  care- 
fully and  accepted  as  a  splendid  discovery  by  the  master  minds 
of  all  countries  since  the  discoverer's  death  in  1834.  To  say 
that  it  is  looked  upon  as  axiomatic  by  the  two  Mills,  by 
Ricardo,  Senior,  Cairnes,  Alexander  Bain,  Gamier,  Bertillon, 
Favvcett,  William  Ellis,  and  William  Hunter,  is  to  say  that  its 
truth  has  been  fully  proved  to  the  ablest  thinkers  on  social 
science  and  on  political  economy  that  this  and  other  European 
States  have  produced. 

^  It  was,  before  the  days  of  Malthus,  the  almost  universal  be- 
lief of  mankind  that  the  wealth  of  a  country  was  in  proportion 
to  its  population.  Statesmen,  poets,  and  philanthropists  were 
<Jonstant  in  their  endeavour  to  secure  as  rapid  a  multiplication 
•of  the  citizens  as  possible  :  and,  up  till  the  publication  of  bit 


%  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

essay — indeed,  long  after  that  event,  it  was  tlie  custom  in  many 
European  States  for  the  Government  to  give  prizes  to  such 
parents  as  had  given  birth  to  and  reared  a  more  than  averagely 
large  family  of  children.  Such  a  law,  indeed,  was  not  abro- 
gated until  about  25  years  ago  in  Sardinia. 

Mr.  Malthus  clearly  exposed  the  eiTor  of  such  teaching.  He 
showed  that,  such  is  the  immense  power  of  increase  in  the 
human  family,  it  is  probable  that,  were  food  plentiful  enough, 
population  might  double  in  some  fifteen  years,  or  even  less. 
With  incredible  assiduity  he  read  and  examined  ancient  history 
and  the  statistics  of  European  countries  and  their  colonies,  for 
the  confirmation  of  his  theory.  He  found,  for  example,  that 
after  the  great  pestilences  which  had  from  time  to  time  ravaged 
European  states,  the  surviving  population  had  been  so  well 
fed  and  housed  that  it  had  been  enabled  to  replace  the  blanks 
left  by  deaths  usually  in  a  very  few  years — in  twenty  years 
in  several  instances. 

Taming  to  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain  in  the  United 
States,  Malthus  confirmed  what  the  great  pioneer  of  all 
progress  in  political  economy,  x\dam  Smith,  had  noted,  namely^ 
that  the  colonists  of  those  States  had  doubled  since  their  settle- 
ment in  considerably  less  than  twenty-five  years  in  some  cases, 
without  taking  into  account  any  fresh  immigration.  In  an 
article  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  written  by  Malthus, 
he  gives  most  accuratelj'-  the  figures  of  the  doubling  of  the 
population  of  the  United  States  from  the  year  1790  until  1820  ; 
and  shows,  from  statistics,  that  very  few  immigrants  had  arrived 
from  Europe  during  this  period.  Making  ample  allowance 
for  the  contingent  for  such  immigration,  Malthus  showed  that, 
from  1790  to  1815,  the  population  of  the  States  had  more  than 
/.doubled.  Hence  he  was  led  to  the  following  expression  : — 
*  "  Population,  when  unchecked,  goes  on  doubling  every  twenty - 
yf  five  years,  or  increases  in  a  geometrical  ratio." 

He  next  shows  that  the  tendency  of  agricultural  produce  fit 

^  for  the  food  of  man  is  to  increase  very  much  more  slowly  than 

yjl  man  could  increase.     This  has  been  termed  the  ^'law  of  agri- 

1    cultural  increase,"  and  is  very  easily  understood  by  taking  ao 

example.     Let  us  grant  that  the  average  quantity  of  wheal 

that  can  be  grown  at  present  on  an  acre  of  ground  in  England 

is  thirty  bushels.    It  would  be  clearly  impossible  to  suppose  that. 

in  25  years  60  bushels  per  acre  could  be  produced  ;  in  50  years, 

120  bushels,  and  so  on.     Whereas,  the  tendency  of  population 

lo    double  in  from   12  to  25  years  is  clear  enough,  when  it  is 

remembered  that  the  human  female  commences  to   be  capable- 


OF    THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  5 

of  reproduction  at  about  fifteen  and  continues  so  until  forty- 
five,  in  this  climate.  Were  European  women  to  marry  as 
•early  as  the  Hindoo  women  do,  there  would  be  a  possibility, 
if  food  were  forthcoming,  of  a  doubling  of  the  population  in 
«ome  fifteen  years  or  less. 

Mr.  Malthus  closely  examined  the  statistics  of  European 
nations  when  he  wrote  in  1805.  Before  the  commencement 
<of  this  century,  he  found  that  the  time  taken  for  doubling  of 
the  populations  of  Europe  was  often  as  great  as  some  five 
liundred  years.  This  remark  had  been  anticipated  by  Adam 
•Smith,  who  had  all  the  materials,  had  he  sufficiently  reflected 
■on  them,  to  have  written  accurately  on  the  Population  Question, 
.since  he  also  was  acquainted  with  the  rapid  doubling  of  civi- 
lised peoples,  when  they  had  been  conveyed  to  new  and  fertile 
-colonies  such  as  the  United  States.  Here,  then,  was  the  con- 
clusion of  Malthus,  which  is  perfectly  obvious  when  it  is  clearly 
stated.  Whenever  population,  in  Europe  or  elsewhere,  fails  to 
double  itself  as  rapidly  as  it  does  in  new  countries,  it  must  be 
•checked  in  some  way  or  other.    Proceeding  a  little  further,  he 

Ids  that  it  must  either  be  checked  by  there  being  fewer  births 

>r  a  greater  number  of  deaths.     Whatever  tends  to  produce  a 

':^maller  number  of  births  is  included  by  Malthus  among  the 

Ipreventwe  checks  to   population :    whatever  leads  to   a  greater 

number  of  deaths,  among  the  positive  checks. 

His  travels  through  Europe  were  mainly  directed  towards 
"the  inquiry  as  to  what  kind  of  check  was  prevalent  in  each 
European  state.  In  ancient  times,  he  saw  that  the  positive 
^checks  to  population  had  everywhere  extensively  prevailed. 
Plagues  and  famines,  with  war  and  infanticide,  had  been  the 
-checks  in  Greece  and  Eome,  as  now  in  China  and  Hindostan. 
Jn  the  Europe  of  his  day,  all  of  these  positive  checks  existed, 
in  greatly  diminished  proportions,  indeed,  but  still  they  were 
far  from  unknown.  The  extreme  prevalence  of  celibacy, 
liowever,  struck  him  in  all  the  civilised  states  of  Europe  which 
Jie  then  visited.  He  noticed  that,  in  many  parts  of  the  Con- 
tinent, where  the  death-rate  was  lower  than  elsewhere,  it  was 
the  custom  for  the  women  to  marry  very  late  in  life.  In  one 
•canton  of  Switzerland,  where  comfort  and  longevity  were  most 
notable,  Malthus  found,  on  enquiry,  that  it  was  the  custom  for 
■the  spinsters  to  delay  their  bridal  day  till  long  after  the  age  of 
thirty.  On  the  other  hand,  wherever  marriages  were  early, 
and  the  birth-rate  was  high,  he  found  on  investigation  that 
the  death-rate  was  also  above  the  average. 

From  this  experience  of  his,  he  was  led  to  the  conclusion 


6  THE  LIIE  AND  WRITINGS 

that  early  marriage,  as  a  rule,  was  certain  to  lead  to  poverty 
and  the  positive  checks  to  population  ;  and,  therefore,  in  hi& 
practical  maxims  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poorer 
classes,  he  looked  forward  solely  to  the  exercise  of  that  celibacy^ 
which  he  had  found  so  often  accompanied  by  long  life  and 
material  comforts. 

Had  Mr.  Malthus  lived  at  this  moment,  he  would  have 
been  aware  of  the  remarkable  fact,  that  the  French  peasantry 
of  modem  days  have,  simply  from  experience  and  without  any 
theory,  become  acquainted  with  the  results  of  his  enquiries,, 
that  a  rapid  increase  of  births  leads  inevitably  to  poverty  and 
early  death.  To  quote  from  the  most  celebrated  of  French 
statists,  M.  Maurice  Block,  the  artizans  of  towns,  and  peasant 
proprietors  of  whole  districts  of  France,  are  accustomed  tO' 
limit  the  size  of  their  families  to  two  children ;  and  thus,  al- 
though France  is  the  most  noted  for  its  number  of  married 
couples  of  all  European  States,  it  is  also  the  country  in  all 
Europe  which  is  the  least  rapid  in  the  increase  of  its  popula- 
tion. The  population  check  in  France,  then,  Malthus,  had  he 
lived,  would  have  found  to  be,  not  celibacy,  but  the  voluntary 
bmilaiion  of  families,  in  the  midst  of  a  married  and  most  moral 
and  domestic  community.  The  great  philanthropist,  who  was- 
so  distinguished  for  his  charming  temper  and  amiability,  could 
not  have  failed,  we  may  rest  assured,  to  have,  with  J.  S.  Mill, 
Garnier,  and  Sismondi,  given  the  preference  to  the  moderrk 
French  checks  to  population  over  all  others. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  we  should  like  to  refer  to  a  few  ad- 
ditional biographical  circumstances  of  Malthus'  life.  They 
have  been  supplied  by  Mr.  Eobert  Porter,  of  Beeston,  Nott'5.,  a 
gentleman  well  known  as  an  admirer  of  the  great  discoverer,, 
and  as  an  expositor  of  his  views.  "The  Reverend  Henry 
Malthus,"  Mr.  Porter  writes,  in  February,  1879,  •*  the  only 
son  of  Thomas  Robert  Malthus,  lives  at  Effingham.  The 
only  daughter,  Emily,  was  living  at  Bathwick  Hill  Villa,. 
Bath,  some  time  back.  She  married  Captain  Pringle.  I  have- 
many  letters  from  her,  as  also  from  her  mother,  who  was 
living  with  her  in  1862,  in  her  86th  year,  when  she  had 
a  photograph  taken  from  the  family  portrait,  and  sent  to  me 
with  a  scrap  of  his  MS.  handwriting.  I  send  you  this  to 
see  and  peruse.  I  wrote  to  Mrs.  Pringle  about  the  memoir  of 
her  Father  in  his  Political  Econoniy,  saying  there  was  much  of 
Mr.  Daniel  Malthus  in  it,  but  nothing  about  his  mother,  from 
whom  I  thought  Mr.  Malthus  had  received  his  best  qualities. 
In  letter  3  you  will  see  the  reply,  and  I  think  will  be  in- 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  7 

terested  to  read  it.  Dr.  Anderson  really  discovered  the  Law  of 
Eent,  as  j^ou  may  see  in  Vol.  6  of  I'he  Bee^  pp.  292 — 300. — 
1791." 

The  information  given  by  Mrs.  Pringle,  and  referred  to  in 
the  above  letter  to  Mr.  Robert  Porter,  is  as  follows.  After 
referring  to  Mr.  Ellis'  teachings  in  the  Friend  of  the  PcopUy 
written  about  the  year  1860,  she  speaks  of  the  personal  ap- 
pearance of  her  father  as  follows:  "  The  likeness  (photograph 
sent)  is  excellent,  and  to  enable  you  to  form  a  complete  idea 
of  his  personal  appearance,  I  must  tell  you  that  his  complexion 
was  fair,  with  light  and  curling  hair,  led  whiskers,  and  bright 
darkish  blue  eyes.  His  height  was  five  feet  eleven  inches, 
and  a  very  well-formed  figure."  Another  granddaughter  of 
Mrs.  Malthus,  the  mother  of  Thomas  Robert,  says  that  Daniel 
Malthus,  the  father,  although  refined,  was  a  selfish  man. 
His  wife  was  devoted  to  him,  and  although  not  a  talented 
woman,  was  accomplished,  and  educated  her  own  daughter 
without  a  governess.  All  her  children  were  devoted  to  her, 
especially  her  eldest  son.  Thomas  Robert  was,  perhaps,  more 
attached  to  his  father ;  but  his  mother's  amiabilit}^  descended 
to  him,  for  he  was  never  known  to  say  a  harsh  word  of  any- 
one, although  more  attacked  than  any  writer  has  perhaps  ever 
been.  It  ajjpears  that  Malthus  died,  not  of  heart  disease,  but 
of  bronchitis.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Graham,  and 
she  was  of  an  old  Scotch  family.  Here  is  one  sentence  to  de- 
pict her  character: — "In  short,  I  imagine  her  gentle,  unob- 
trusive, loving,  romantic,  and  perfectly  unseltish  ;  but  not  the 
sort  of  person  to  form  her  suns'  characters,  though  to  attract 
their  affections.'* 


THE  LIFE  AND  WHITINGS 


CHAPTER     II. 

AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  *'  ESSAY  ON  THE  PRINCirLE 
OF  POPULATION." 

COMPARATIVELY  few  students  of  Political  Economy  at 
the  present  day  appear  to  read  Malthus'  celebrated  Essay 
in  the  original.  This,  in  our  opinion,  is  a  great  mistake.  That 
work  is  as  readable  now  as  it  was  when  it  attracted  such  well- 
merited  attention  at  the  commencement  of  this  century ;  and 
the  statistics  given  by  the  learned  author  become  even  more 
valuable  than  ever,  owing  to  the  important  additions  made  to 
them  of.  recent  years  by  the  various  modern  writers  on  Social 
Economy. 

The  third  edition  of  Malthus'  essay,  which  appeared  in 
1806,  is  now  before  us  :  and  consists  of  two  volumes  of  about 
one  thousand  pages  in  all,  of  large  type,  full  of  the  most  inter- 
esting accounts  ever  given  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
'  different  nations  of  ancient  and  modern  tmes.  The  first  vo- 
lume is  divided  into  two  books.  In  Book  I.  there  are  fourteen 
chapters,  the  first  of  which  states  the  Law  of  Population,  or 
the  te7idency  which  population  has  to  increase  more  rapidh^  than 
the  means  of  subsistence.  The  second  chapter  treats  of  the 
general  checks  to  population,  and  the  way  in  which  these 
operate.  Then  come  three  most  interesting  chapters^  on  the 
checks  to  poj^ulation  among  savage  nations,  followed  by  one 
on  those  obtaining  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Northern 
Europe.  Chapter  seven  gives  an  account  of  the  checks  exist- 
ing among  modern  pastoral  nations  ;  and  this  is  followed  by 
an  account  of  the  checks  in  Africa,  and  Northern  and  Southern 
Siberia.  Then  follows  a  most  interesting  account  of  the  brutal 
checks  to  population  in  Turkey,  and  the  lamentable  starvation 
checks  of  Hindostan  and  China.  Book  L  ends  with  chapters 
on  the  checks  to  population  among  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Romans. 

In  Book  11.  there  is  a  most  important  account  given  by  Mr. 
Malthus  of  the  results  of  his  extensive  travels  in  Europe,  in 
1799  and  after  years,  with  details  of  the  checks  to  population 
existing  in  Norway,  Sweden,  Russia,  Germany,  Switzerland, 
France,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 


OP    THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  1& 

If  those  persons  who  at  present  think  that  the  Malthusian 
law  of  human  increase  has  been  found  by  subsequent  investi- 
.^ation  to  be  erroneous,  could  only  be  induced  to  read  Mr. 
Malthus'  essay  in  the  original,  they  would  soon  find  that  all 
these  objections  have  been  anticipated  in  that  celebrated  work, 
and  perhaps  acknowledge,  with  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  and  other  econo- 
mists, that  the  truth  is  "axiomatic,''  or  no  longer  requiring 
•discussion.  In  the  last  pamphlet,  indeed,  which  we  have  seen, 
•dedicated  to  one  of  the  most  deservedly  jDopular  of  modern 
British  authors,  Thomas  Carlyle,  the  writer,  like  Mr.  Carlyle 
himself,  sj^eaks  as  if  the  law  of  Malthus  had  been  refuted  ;  but, 
■as  usual  in  such  cases,  it  is  clear  that  the  writer  has  not  the 
least  idea  of. what  the  celebrated  Essay  on  Population  was 
written  to  prove. 

In  his  first  chapter,  Malthus  observes  that  Euler,  a  great 
mathematician,  had  calculated  that,  on  the  supposition  of  such 
-a  moderate  amount  of  mortality  as  one  in  36  (which  is  con- 
•fiiderably  higher  than  our  present  mortality  of  one  in  42  in 
England),  and  with  the  further  supposition  of  the  births  being 
to  the  deaths  as  three  to  one  (a  ratio  which  seems  nearly  to  hold 
^•ood,  at  present,  in  New  Zealand),  the  period  of  doubling  a 
population  would  be  only  12f  years  ;  and  Sir  William  Petty, 
in  his  work  on  Political  Arithmetic,  supposed  a  doubling  to  be 
possible  in  some  ten  3^ears. 

Malthus  compares  this  te?idency  with  the  actual  increase  of 
man  in  such  countries  as  China  and  Japan.  He  observes  that 
it  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  the  best  directed  efforts  of 
human  industry  could  double  the  agricultural  produce  of  China 
even  once,  in  a7iy  number  of  years.  The  difference  between 
the  time  of  doubling,  which  has  taken  place  of  late  in 
«ome  twenty  or  thirty  years,  in  North  America,  and  in  our 
Australian  colonies,  when  compared  with  the  slow  increase 
•of  the  Chinese  population,  gives  the  most  complete  view  of 
•the  case  that  can  be  obtained. 

In  countries  which  are  naturally  healthy,  and  where  the 
preventive  check  is  found  to  prevail,  too,  with  considerable  force, 
■the  positive  check,  as  Malthus  observes,  will  prevail  very  little, 
and  the  mortality  will  be  small ;  but  in  every  country  some  of 
the  checks  are  and  will  always  continue  to  be,  in  constant 
operation  :  so  that  mankind  has  only  a  choice  of  evils,  for  we 
•cannot  possibly  escape  from  sof?ie  of  the  population  checks, 
which  are  inevitable. 

In  his  third  chapter  our  author  reviews  the  population  checks 
in  the  lowest  stage  of  human  society  ;  and  shows  how  impos- 


10  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

sible  it  is  for  such  unfortunate  peoples  as  the  natives  of  the- 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  or  of  Van  Diemen's  Land,  to  increase  rapidly 
in  numbers,  owing  to  their  extreme  ignorance  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  In  New  Zealand,  Captain  Cook  found  the  checks  to 
population  to  be  war,  and  starvation  so  great  as  to  prompt  to- 
cannibalism,  in  a  countrj'-  where,  as  it  is  at  present  colonized 
by  a  civilized  people,  the  deaths  seem  not  to  exceed  fifteen  per 
1,000  annually,  and  population  doubles  in  about  twenty  years 
or  less,  without  counting  immigrants. 

In  Mr.  Malthus'  day,  there  still  existed  large  numbers  of 
those  unfortunate  races  of  American  Indians,  which  are  now  so 
rapidly  disappearing  in  the  modern  *' struggle  for  existence" 
with  civilised  Europeans.  Then,  as  now,  these  tribes  lived 
principally  by  hunting  and  fishing,  most  narrow  modes  of 
subsistence.  The  mortality  of  infants  among  such  tribes  was 
always  enormous,  and  the  Jesuit  missionaries  mentioned  how 
that  the  Indians  of  South  America  were  subject  to  perpetual 
diseases  for  which  they  knew  no  remedy ;  scarcely  ever  did- 
the  individuals  of  such  tribes  attain  to  an  advanced  age  ;  and 
the  checks  to  population  among  them  were  chiefly  of  the  posi- 
tive kind — plagues,  starvation,  brutal  wars,  and  disease.  The- 
North  American  Indians,  too,  lived  in  such  a  state  of  filth  and 
over-crowding  in  their  huts,  that  every  infectious  disease  car- 
ried off  vast  numbers.  Cannibalism,  according  to  Captain  Cook^. 
as  seen  in  New  Zealand  and  other  islands,  originated  in  the 
fearful  privations  experienced  by  such  peoples  when  their 
numbers  were  pressing  on  the  food  supplies. 

And  here  let  us  quote  Malthus'  own  words, — *'  It  is  not  that 
the  American  tribes  have  never  increased  sufficiently  to  render 
the  pastoral  or  agricultural  state  necessary  to  them  ;  but,  from 
some  cause  or  other,  they  have  not  adopted  in  any  great  degree 
these  more  plentiful  modes  of  procuring  subsistence,  and  there- 
fore cannot  have  increased  so  as  to  become  populous.  If 
hunger  alone  could  have  prompted  the  savage  tribes  of  America 
to  such  a  change  in  their  habits,  I  do  not  conceive  that  there 
would  have  been  a  single  nation  of  hunters  and  fishers  re- 
maining; but,  it  is  evident,  that  some  fortunate  train  of 
circumstances,  in  addition  to  this  stimulus,  is  necessary  for  the 
purpose.'^ 

In  chapter  V.,  our  author  gives  a  curious  account  of  how 
population  was  checked  in  the  islands  of  the  South  Seas.  It  i». 
among  such  islands  as  these  (and,  indeed,  the  British  islands^ 
in  ancient  times  resembled  them  greatly),  that  we  trace  the 
origin  of  many  of  the  singular  institutions  destined  to  retard 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MAT/l'MUS.  11 

the  rapid  increase  of  mankind — cannibalism,  late  marriages,, 
the  conisecration  of  virginity,  and  ferocious  punishments  against 
8uch  women  as  reproduce  the  species  at  too  early  an  age.  Cap- 
tain Cook  found  such  a  constant  state  of  warfare  existing  among 
the  various  tribes  in  New  Zealand,  that  each  village  in  its  turn 
applied  to  him  to  assist  them  in  destroying  the  others.  In  his 
third  voyage  he  adds  that  warlike  ferocity  is  so  constant  *'  that 
one  hardly  ever  finds  a  New  Zealander  off  his  guard,  either  by 
night  or  day." 

In  Otaheite  and  the  Society  Islands,  again,  where  the  size  of 
the  islands  was  too  small,  and  the  knowledge  of  navigation 
acquired  b}^  the  islanders  too  scanty  to  make  it  possible  for 
population  to  increase  rapidly,  all  sorts  of  sufferings  were  seen 
among  the  poorer  classes  of  the  people  ;  the  richer  classes, 
however,  seemed,  according  to  Captain  Cook,  to  check  their 
own  increase  by  having  recourse  to  the  fearful  practice  of  in- 
fanticide, to  an  enormous  and  unparalleled  extent.  Even  with 
these  checks,  however,  population,  in  the  South  Sea  Islands,  oc- 
casionally pressed  so  hard  on  subsistence  that  animal  food  be- 
came very  scarce  in  certain  seasons,  and  such  destructive  wars- 
ensued  that  Captain  Vancouver,  on  visiting  Otaheite,  in  1777, 
and  again  in  1791,  found  that  most  of  his  friends  of  1777  were 
dead,  having  been  killed  in  the  wars.  Prostitution,  and  de- 
struction of  female  infants,  were  extremely  common  in  Otaheite 
in  Captain  Cook's  time. 

In  taking  a  general  review  of  that  department  of  human 
society,  classed  under  the  name  of  savage  life,  the  only  advan- 
tage Malthus  notices  is  the  possession  of  a  greater  degree  or 
leisure  by  the  mass  of  the  people,  than  that  possessed  by  those 
of  civilised  countries.  "  There  is  less  work  to  be  done,  and^ 
consequently,  there  is  less  labour.  When  we  consider  the  in« 
cessant  toil  to  which  the  lower  classes,  in  civilised  societies,, 
are  condemned,  this  cannot  but  appear  to  us  a  striking  ad- 
vantage ;  but  it  is  probably  overbalanced  by  greater  disad- 
vantages." 

This  remark  of  Mr.  Malthus  shows  us,  to  a  certain  extent,  on. 
what  J.  J.  Rousseau  founded  his  belief  as  to  the  superior  hap- 
piness of  the  state  of  nature  over  the  civilised.  Had  Eousseau 
read  the  Essay  on  Population,  he  could  not,  w^e  believe,  have- 
failed  to  perceive  that  the  evils  of  civilisation  are  almost  solely 
due  to  the  universal  want  of  knowledge  of  the  Population  Law. 
The  late  marriages,  and  prostitution,  so  bitterly  inveighed 
against  by  that  author,  are  merely  the  sorrowful  population 
checks  of  most  modern  civilised  nations,  that  have  passed  into- 


12  TUK  LIFE  AND    WRITINGS 

the  pastoral  and  agricultural  stages  of  society,  and  have  not 
jet  proceeded  far  enough  to  control  the  enormous  fecundity  of 
the  race  by  less  painful  and  more  thoughtful  expedients  than 
those  which  Jean  Jaques  Rousseau  so  clearly  perceived  and 
so  powerfully  denounced  in  the  French  society  of  the  reign 
-of  Louis  XV. 

After  speaking  of  the  positive  checks  to  population  which 
"have  been  so  universal  among  savage  nations,  Mr.  Malthus 
j)roceeds  in  chapter  vi.  to  treat  of  the  checks  which  prevented 
increase  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  North  of  Europe. 
Astonishment  has  often  been  expressed  at  the  the  hordes  of 
warriors  that,  at  various  periods  of  the  decay  of  the  Eoman 
Empire,  were  poured  down  upon  it  from  the  Northern  na- 
tions. Mr.  Malthus  explains,  with  great  clearness,  that, 
wherever  the  customs  of  such  nations  as  composed  the 
immigrants  were  such  as  to  conduce  to  health  and  early 
marriage,  the  immense  fecundity  of  the  race  fully  accounts 
for  these  crowds  of  immigrants  so  rapidly  succeeding  each 
other  until  the  destruction  of  Rome  ensued.  Machiavel,  in 
the  beginning  of  his  History  of  Florence,  says  :  "  The  people 
who  inhabit  the  northern  ]3arts  that  lie  between  the  Rhine 
and  the  Danube,  living  in  a  healthful  and  prolific  climate, 
often  increase  to  such  a  degree,  that  vast  numbers  of  them  are 
forced  to  leave  their  country  and  go  in  search  of  new  habita- 
tions. These  emigrations  proved  the  destruction  of  the 
Roman  Empire." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  a  true  account  of  the 
Tvay  in  which  poverty  and  over  -  rapid  reproduction  cause 
-emigration  in  ancient  and  modern  times  ;  and  we  cannot  help 
regarding  the  present  warlike  policy  of  England  and  Germany 
-as  signs  of  a  growing  over-population  in  both  of  these  States, 
which  tempts  the  proletaire  members  of  the  governing  classes 
to  seek  ever  fresh  territory,  and  makes  the  other  classes  of 
society  so  tolerant  of  such  unjust  conduct  in  their  rulers.  In 
iact,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  adoption  of  neo-Malthusian 
views  is  the  only  really  revolutionary  measure,  and  the  only 
safeguard  of  nations  against  wars  of  conquest  or  intestinal 
^dissension. 

In  chapter  vii.  Malthus  speaks  of  the  checks  to  population 
among  modern  pastoral  nations.  Pastoral  nations,  although 
not  so  poor  as  hunting  nations,  are,  of  course,  far  more  unable 
,to  acquire  wealth  than  nations  that  have  adopted  agricultural 
pursuits.  Hence,  population  increases  but  slowly  in  such 
communities,  and  they  are  often  on  the  verge  of  famine  for 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHU8.  13 

lengthened  periods.  Volney,  in  his  travels,  says,  that  the 
pastoral  tribes  of  the  iVrabian  desert  deny  that  the  religion  of 
Mahomet  was  made  for  them.  "  For  how,"  they  say,  *'  can 
we  perform  ablutions  when  we  have  no  water ;  how  can  we 
give  alms  when  we  have  no  riches  ;  or  what  occasion  can 
there  be  to  fast  during  the  month  of  Kamadan,  when  we  fast, 
all  the  year  ?  " 

And  yet  it  seems  that  in  Arabia,  as  elsewhere,  the  direct 
social  encouragements  to  population  are  very  great.  A 
Mahometan  is  taught  that  one  of  the  great  duties  of  man  is  to- 
procreate  children  to  glorify  the  Creator.  But,  as  Mr.  Malthus 
truly  says,  *'  While  the  Arabs  retain  their  present  manners, 
and  the  country  remains  in  its  present  state  of  cultivation,  the 
promise  of  paradise  to  every  man  who  had  ten  children  would 
but  little  increase  their  numbers,  though  it  might  greatly 
increase  their  misery.'' 

The  checks  to  jDopulation  existing  in  Africa  seem  to  be 
chiefly  of  the  positive  kind.  Incessant  warfare,  with  death  by 
famine  or  epidemics,  are  described  by  the  early  travellers  on 
that  Continent,  Park  and  Bruce,  as  carrying  off  whole  tribes. 
Park  states  that,  independently  of  violent  causes,  the  struggle 
for  food  is  so  great  in  most  African  states,  that  longevity  is 
rare  among  the  negroes.  At  forty,  most  of  them  become 
grayhaired  and  covered  with  wrinkles,  and  but  few  of  them 
survive  the  age  of  fifty-five  or  sixty.  There  was,  in  his  day, 
but  little  difficult}^  in  obtaining  slaves  in  times  of  famire  in 
Africa,  as  even  free  negroes  were  often  so  pressed  with  huager 
as  to  entreat,  according  to  Dr.  Laidley,  to  be  put  on  his  slave- 
chain,  to  save  them  from  starvation.  Bruce  reports  that,  in 
many  of  the  tribes,  women  begin  to  be  mothers  at  the  age  of 
eleven  :  and  to  such  a  life  of  privation  and  care  does  this  rapid 
reproduction  lead,  that  he  speaks  of  the  women  in  some  States 
near  Abyssinia  as  becoming,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  ''  more 
wrinkled  and  deformed  by  age,  than  an  European  woman  is 
at  sixty." 

Mr.  Malthus,  after  a  very  curious  account  of  the  checks  to 
population  in  Northern  and  Southern  Siberia,  then  passes  on 
in  chapter  x.,  to  treat  of  the  Turkish  Dominions  and  Persia, 
and  his  remarks  are  especially  interesting  to  our  modern 
politicians.  The  fundamental  cause  of  the  low  rate  of  increase 
of  population  in  Turkey,  he  truly  remarks,  is  undoubtedly  the 
nature  of  the  Turkish  government.  Its  tyranny,  its  feebleness, 
its  bad  laws,  and  worse  administration  of  them,  with  the 
consequent  insecurity  of  property,  throw  such  obstacles  in  the 


14  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

way  of  agriculture,  that  the  means  of  subsistence  are  necessarily 
decreasing  yearly,  and  with  them,  of  course,  the  number  of 
people.  It  is  calculated  at  the  present  day  that  population 
would  double  only  once  in  555  years  in  Turkey,  owing  to  the 
positive  checks  caused  by  its  wretched  government.  The 
population  of  modern  Turkey  is  about  28  millions,  or  only 
some  16  jDersons  per  square  mile  ;  and,  in  1876,  it  was  stated 
in  governmental  reports  that  the  population  of  the  empire  was 
fast  declining,  and  its  cultivated  lands  falling  into  the  con- 
dition of  deserts.  In  Europe,  as  in  Asia,  we  are  informed  by 
Malthus,  it  was  the  maxim  of  Turkish  policy,  originating  in 
the  feebleness  of  government,  and  the  fear  of  popular  tumults, 
to  keep  the  price  of  corn  low  in  all  the  considerable  towns. 
"  When  Constantinople  is  in  want  of  provisions,  ten 
provinces  are  jDerhaps  famished  for  a  supply.  At  Damascus, 
during  the  scarcity  of  1784,  the  people  paid  only  one  penny 
farthing  a  j)Ound  for  their  bread,  whilst  the  peasants  in  the 
villages  were  actually  dying  with  hunger." 

As  to  the  checks  to  population  in  Persia,  the  dreadful  con- 
vulsions to  which  that  country  has  been  subject  for  many 
hundred  years  must  have  been  fatal  to  her  agriculture.  The 
periods  ot  repose  from  external  wars  and  internal  commotions 
Iiave  been  short  and  few,  and  even  during  the  times  of  pre- 
found  peace,  the  frontier  provinces  were  constantly  subject  to 
the  ravages  of  the  Tartars.     Hence  the  slow  increase. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  parts  of  the  Essay  oft  Population  is 
that  wherein  Mr.  Malthus  treats  of  the  checks  to  population 
in  Hindostan  and  Tibet.  In  Hindostau,  according  to  the 
ordinance  of  Menu,  the  Indian  legislator,  marriage  is  very 
greatly  encouraged,  and  a  male  heir  is  considered  as  an  object 
of  the  first  importance.  Hindoo  maidens  are  married  at  the 
age  of  eleven,  and  even  younger  :  and  become  mothers  before 
they  attain  the  age  of  twelve.  For  such  reasons,  Hindostan 
has  been  one  of  the  most  noted  countries  in  the  world  for 
devastations,  epidemics,  and  famines.  The  lower  classes  have 
for  centuries  been  reduced  to  the  extremost  poverty,  and 
compelled  to  adopt  the  most  frugal  and  scanty  mode  of  sub- 
sistence. Whilst  the  average  annual  income  per  head  in 
England  was  calculated,  by  Mr.  Henry  Fawcett  in  1870,  at 
about  some  eighteen  pounds  ;  in  Hindostan,  it  was  lately 
stated  by  Mr.  J.  Bright,  that  about  two  or  three  pounds 
sterling  for  food  is  all  a  Hindoo  peasant  gets.  And,  as  Lord 
Derby  remarked  in  his  admirable  Rochdale  speech  in  1879, 
the  people  of  Hindostan  seem  to   be  a   marked  example   of 


OP  THOBIAS  R.  BIALTHUS.  15 

iiow   very  low   a   standard   of  living   a  nation   may  people 
•down  to. 

Recent  years  liave  made  us  familiar  with  the  tales  of 
Indian  famines ;  but  there  is  nothing  novel  in  these  in  the 
history  of  that  long  over-peopled  country.  One  of  the 
Jesuits  cited  by  Malthus  says  that  it  is  impossible  for  him  to 
•describe  the  misery  to  which  he  was  witness  during  the  two 
years'  famine  in  1737  and  1738,  and  another  Jesuit  writes, 
•**  Every  year  we  baptize  'a  thousand  children,  whom  their 
parents  can  no  longer  feed,  or  who,  being  likely  to  die,  are 
sold  to  us  by  their  mothers  in  order  to  get  rid  of  them." 

Tibet,  it  seems,  according  to  Malthus,  is  perhaps  the  only 
country  where  habits  tending  to  repress  population  are,  or 
were,  universally  encouraged  by  the  government.  Celibacy 
is  there  much  encouraged  among  government  employ  s,  and 
the  number  of  monasteries  and  nunneries  is  considerable. 
•*  But,  even  among  the  laity,  the  business  of  population  goes  on 
very  coldly.  All  the  brothers  of  a  family,  without  any  re- 
striction of  age  or  of  numbers,  associate  their  fortunes  with 
one  female,  who  is  chosen  by  the  eldest  and  considered  as 
the  mistress  of  the  house.'*'  It  is  evident  that  this  custom, 
combined  with  the  celibacy  of  such  a  numerous  body  of 
•ecclesiastics,  must  operate,  says  Malthus,  in  the  most  powerful 
manner  as  a  preventive  check  to  population.  Yet,  according 
to  Mr.  Turner's  account,  it  appears  that  the  population  of 
Tibet  presses  on  the  means  of  subsistence.  Tibet,  in  Mr. 
Turner's  time,  seems  to  have  suffered,  as  England  now  does, 
and  as  we  hear  that  even  our  wealthy  colonies  of  Victoria  and 
New  South  Wales  do,  from  a  set  of  paupers  created  by  an 
extremely  unwise  system  of  out-door  relief — a  system  which 
but  too  often  manufactures  the  very  paupers  it  wishes  to 
relieve. 

Mr.  Malthus'  account  of  the  Checks  to  Population  in 
China  and  Japan,  contained  in  chapter  xij.  of  his  work'  is 
one  of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the  question  con- 
ceivable. His  authorities  are  Duhalde's  History  of  China  and 
Sir  G.  Staunton's  Account  of  his  Embassy  to  China.  Accord- 
ing to  the  former  author,  writing  in  1738,  the  population  of 
China  was  then  estimated  as  at  least  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  millions.  At  present  China  is  said  to  contain  some  four 
hundred  millions. 

The  causes  of  the  great  populousness  of  China  are,  according 
to  Malthus,  its  advantageous  position  as  to  climate  and  irriga- 
tion, and  the  very  great  encouragement  given  to  agriculture 


IS  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

by  the  monarclis  of  that  nation.  The  Emperor  himself  e very- 
year,  to  set  an  example,  ploughs  a  few  ridges  of  land,  and  the- 
mandarins  of  every  city  perform  the  same  ceremony.  The 
whole  surface  of  the  empire  is,  with  trifling  exceptions,  dedi- 
cated to  the  production  of  food  for  man  alone.  There  is  no- 
, meadow,  and  very  little  pasture,  and  no  waste  land.  Even 
the  soldiers  of  the  Chinese  army  are  mostly  employed  in. 
agriculture. 

The  extraordinary  encouragements  given  to  marriage  also- 
contribute  to  make  China  more  populous  in  proportion  to  the 
extent  of  its  territory  than  any  other  country.  The  permission 
given  by  parents  to  abandon  their  children,  which  exists  in 
China,  is  shown  by  Sir  G.  Staunton  to  facilitate  marriage,  and 
cause  even  greater  over-population  than  in  more  civilized 
states  where  such  barbarities  are  not  permitted.  The  effect  of 
this  early  marriage  and  rapid  peopling  is  to  subdivide  pro- 
perty ;  and  it  is  a  common  remark  among  the  Chinese,  that 
fortunes  seldom  continue  considerable  in  the  same  family 
beyond  the  third  generation.  One  of  the  Jesuits,  writing  on 
China,  saj^s  :  ''The  richest  and  most  flourishing  empire  of  the 
world  is,  in  one  sense,  the  poorest  and  most  miserable  of  all. 
Four  times  as  much  territory  would  be  necessary  to  put  the: 
inhabitants  at  their  ease.'' 

It  cannot  be  said  in  China,  as  it  often  is  said  in  Europe,  thai 
the  poor  are  idle,  and  might  gain  a  subsistence  if  they  would, 
work.  The  labours  and  efforts  of  these  poor  peoiDle  are  beyond 
conception.  "  A  Chinese  will  pass  whole  days  in  digging  the 
earth,  sometimes  up  to  his  knees  in  water,  and  in  the  evening 
is  happy  to  eat  a  little  spoonful  of  rice,  and  to  drink  the  in- 
sipid water  in  which  it  is  boiled."  This  is  the  remark  of  a 
Jesuit:  and  although  it  is  evidently  an  exaggeration,  since 
modern  researches  on  diet  show  that  such  food  could  not  main- 
tain animal  existence,  it  shows  what  miseries  are  caused  by 
the  peopling  down  to  such  a  low  standard  of  comfort. 

"  The  procreative  power,'*  says  Malthus,  "  would,  with  as 
much  facility,  double  in  twenty-five  years  the  population  of 
China,  as  that  of  any  of  the  States  of  America."  We  can 
readily  sympathise,  then,  with  the  alarm  felt  by  our  fellow- 
countrymen  in  Australasia  and  California,  at  the  possible^ 
invasion  of  the  untold  millions  which  China  could,  with  the 
greatest  facility,  pour  into  them.  It  is.  for  this  reason,  that 
the  Legislature  of  New  South  Wales  has  quite  recently,  by  a 
large  majority,  passed  a  Bill  to  stem  the  current  of  Chinese 
It  v/ill  be  for  the   ultimate  advantage  of  the- 


OF  THOMAS  R.   MALTHU8.  17 

tuman  race  that  nations  with  such  a  low  standard  of  comfort 
as  the  Chinese,  should  learn  that  the}^  must  imitate  the  more 
prosperous  nations  in  prudential  restraint  before  they  can  be- 
come entitled  to  claim  to  become  citizens  of  such  countries. 

We  have  lately  understood  the  magnitude  of  a  Chinese 
famine,  where  millions  of  unfortunate  people  are  reduced  to 
misery  and  death  at  once,  from  the  failure  of  the  crops.  Mr. 
Malthus  notices  that,  in  such  times  of  dearth,  China  can  obtain 
no  assistance  from  her  neighbours :  and  must  perforce  draw 
the  whole  of  her  resources  from  her  own  provinces.  When 
such  failures  of  the  crops  occur,  the  government  of  China  pre- 
tend to  be  very  assiduous  in  providing  schemes  for  the  miseries 
of  the  people  ;  but,  in  the  meanwhile,  hosts  of  unfortunates 
are  starved  to  death,  since  there  is  not  enough  food  forthcoming, 
so  little  margin  is  left,  on  account  of  the  very  scanty  share 
falling  to  the  lot  of  each,  even  in  times  of  plenty. 

In  this  chapter  upon  China  and  Japan  Malthus  makes  an 
acute  remark  on  the  question,  which  is  sometimes  discussed  in 
this  countr}^,  whether  the  consuir.ption  of  grain  in  the  manu- 
facture of  spirits  is  ever  a  cause  of  famine.  The  whole  tend- 
•ency  of  such  a  manufacture  is,  he  asj-erts,  to  the  contrary. 
"  The  consumjDtion  of  corn,  in  any  other  way  but  that  of  ne- 
cessary food,  checks  the  population  before  it  arrives  at  the 
utmost  limits  of  subsistence,  and,  as  the  grain  may  be  with- 
drawn from  this  particular  use  in  the  time  of  a  scarcity,  a 
public  granary  is  thus  opened  richer  probably  than  could  have 
been  formed  by  any  other  means.  When  such  a  consumption 
has  been  once  established,  and  has  become  permanent,  its  effect 
is  exactly  as  if  a  piece  of  land,  with  all  the  people  upon  it,  were 
removed  from  the  country.  The  rest  of  the  people  would 
•certainly  be  precisely  in  the  same  state  as  they  were  before, 
neither  better  nor  worse,  in  years  of  average  plenty;  but,  in 
a  time  of  dearth,  the  produce  of  this  land  would  be  returned 
to  them,  without  the  mouths  to  help  them  to  eat  it." 

This  fact  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  Mr.  Hoyle  and  other 
writers  on  abstinence  from  alcohol,  since  the  advocacj^  of  a 
good  cause  is  often  impeded  by  incorrect  reasoning.  "  China, 
without  her  distilleries,  would  certainly  be  more  pof)ulous," 
says  Malthus,  *'  but  on  a  failure  of  the  seasons  would  have  still 
less  resource  than  she  has  at  present,  and  as  far  as  the  magni- 
tude of  the  cause  would  operate,  would,  in  consequence,  be 
more  subject  to  famines,  and  those  famines  would  be  severe." 
Temperance  advocates,  then,  should,  if  possible,  try  to  sub- 
stitute a  less  injurious  luxury  in  the  place  of  alcohol,  which 


18  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

causes  so  much  disease ;  and  not  forget  that  the  poverty  of 
over-population  is  one  of  the  great  causes  of  drunkenness. 

The  principal  cause  of  the  great  populousness  of  Japan  is 
doubtless  the  persevering  industry  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
checks  to  population  in  Japan  have  been  famines,  as  in  China 
and  Hindostan;  but  the  Japanese  are  also  more  warlike  than 
the  Chinese,  and  there  is  much  less  encouragement  given  to- 
marriage  in  Japan  than  there  is  in  China.  Hence  the  superior 
enlightenment  of  the  JajDanese,  and  the  intelligence  which  has 
recently  made  them  so  alive  to  the  benefits  conferred  on  man« 
kind  by  European  civilization. 

The  all-important  nature  of  the  discovery  of  Malthus  may 
be  better  seen  by  comparing  the  condition  of  China  with  that 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  than  by  any  other  exam])Je. 
So  far  advanced  have  the  Chinese  been,  for  perhaps  some 
thousands  of  years,  in  the  knowledge  of  the  art  of  agriculture, 
that  it  is  now  probable  that  the  four  hundred  millions  at  pre- 
sent occupying  the  Empii-e  could  not  possibly  double  in  any 
given  nuniber  of  years.  Whereas,  the  population  of  the  United 
States  has  for  the  last  century  continued  to  double,  aided  by 
immigration,  in  periods  of  less  than  twenty-five  years.  He 
must,  indeed,  be  gifted  with  a  poor  capacity  for  reason,  who 
does  not,  on  comparing  these  two  rates,  at  once  see,  that  the 
grand  problem  for  our  race  is  to  prevent  the  instinct  of  re- 
production from  causing  the  terrible  evils  of  early  death,  and 
chronic  poverty.  To  introduce  the  new  Malthusian  views  into 
China  and  Hindostan  is  the  onl}^  way  to  cope  with  the  famines, 
infanticides,  and  life-long  starvation  of  these  terribly  over- 
peopled countries. 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  IP 


CHAPTEE     III. 


OF  THE  CHECKS  TO  POPULATION  AMOXG  THE  ANCIENT 
GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

TPIE  more  equal  division  of  landed  property  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  in  the  earlier  period  of  their  history, 
must  have  tended  greatly  to  encourage  population,  since  agri- 
culture, Mr.  Malthus  says,  is  the  only  kind  of  industry  which 
permits  of  multitudes  existing.  When,  as  often  occurred,  the 
number  of  free  citizens  did  not  exceed  ten  or  twenty  thousand, 
every  individual  would  naturally  feel  the  value  of  his  own  ex- 
ertions, and  know  that,  if  he  left  his  lands  idle,  he  would  be 
wanting  in  his  duty  as  a  citizen.  Hence,  a  great  attention  was 
paid  to  agriculture  in  Greece.  Population  rapidly  increased, 
and  colonization  was  common,  so  that  the  legislators  of  Greece 
had  their  attention  frequently  called  to  the  question  of  over- 
population. Mr.  Malthus  had  already  shown  that  the  practice 
of  infanticide,  as  existing  in  China,  tended  rather  to  increase 
jDopulation,  b}^  tempting  people  into  early  marriage.  Solon 
permitted  the  exposition  of  infimts,  ]Mr.  Malthus  is  inclined  to 
think,  partly  for  the  jDurpose  of  tempting  the  citizens  into  early 
marriage,  and  thus  increasing  the  population. 

The  great  philosophers  of  Greece,  such  as  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle, are  the  origin  of  all  real  civilisation  in  succeeding  ages 
throughout  Europe  :  and  have,  saved  us  from  the  deluge  of 
crude  theologies,  such  as  those  of  Palestine  or  less  cultured 
tribes.  The  so-called  divine  law  of  "  Increase  and  multiply 
and  replenish  the  earth,"  and  other  equalW  vague  and  mean- 
ingless exclamations,  are  in  strongest  contrast  with  the  scientific 
reasoning  of  these  masters  of  all  the  learned.  Plato,  in  his  "  Ee- 
public,"  limits  the  number  of  free  citizens  in  his  ideal  state  to 
five  thousand  and  forty.  Procreation,  he  maintains,  when  it 
proceeds  too  fast,  may  be  checked,  or  when  it  goes  on  too 
slowly,  may  be  encouraged,  by  the  proper  distribution  of  hon- 
ors and  marks  of  ignominj^,  and  by  the  admonitions  of  the 
elders  to  prevent  or  promote  it  according  to  circumstances. 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  evidently  was  of  a  similar  oiDinion,  and 
his  followers  have  advocated  State  intervention  as  a  cure  for 
poverty.  Plato  also  anticipated  Mr.  Darwin  himself  and  the 
modern  Darwinians,  who  lay  such  great  and  just  stress  on  the 


20  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

point  of  the  rational  selection  of  parents.  In  the  fifth  book  of 
his  *'  Republic."  he  j^roposes  that  the  most  healthy  men  should 
be  joined  in  marriage  to  the  finest  specimens  among  the  women, 
and  the  inferior  citizens  should  be  paired  with  each  other. 
He  next  proiioses  that  the  children  of  the  first  class  alone  shall 
be  brought  up,  the  others  not.  It  will  doubtless  be  one  of  the 
results  of  the  neo-Malthusian  movement  of  this  day,  that  per- 
sons afflicted  with  hereditary  disease  will  not  so  often  desire  to 
become  parents  as  the  healthy,  whilst  they  may  follow  the 
advice  of  Professor  Mantegazza,  of  Florence,  and  "  marry, 
but  not  procreate." 

From  these  and  other  passages  it  is  clear  that  Plato  well  saw 
the  tendency  of  population  to  increase  beyond  the  means  of 
subsistence.  His  expedients  for  checking  it  were  not  per- 
missible, indeed,  but  the  extent  to  which  they  were  to  be  used 
shows  how  great  he  perceived  the  difficulty  to  be.  How  back- 
ward most  modern  nations  are  in  speculation  on  such  points 
may  be  judged  of  by  the  unwillingness  in  Germany,  England, 
and  even  in  France  to  look  the  question  fairly  in  the  face.  In 
Plato's  time  wars  were  nearly  perpetual,  and  very  destructive, 
and  if,  whilst  knowing  this,  he  could  still  contemplate  the  de- 
struction of  the  children  of  the  jDOorer  and  sicklier  of  the 
population,  of  all  who  were  born  when  their  parents  were 
either  too  young  or  too  old,  the  fixing  of  the  date  of  marriage 
late,  and  the  regulating  the  number  of  marriages,  his  reasonings 
and  experience  must  have  jDointed  out  to  him  the  terrible  ten- 
dency of  population  to  over-pass  the  means  of  subsistence. 

The  great  writer,  Aristotle,  seems  to  have  seen  the  principle 
even  more  clearly  than  Plato.  He  fixes  the  age  of  marriage 
for  men  in  his  Re23ublic  actually  at  thirty-seven  ;  and,  even 
with  this  late  marriage,  he  foresaw  that  there  might  be  too  many 
children,  so  that  he  proposed  that  the  number  allowed  to  each 
marriage  should  be  regulated.  Aristotle  accuses  Plato  of  not 
being  sufficiently  attentive  to  the  population  difficulty,  and  for 
proposing  to  equalise  property  without  limiting  the  number  of 
children  {^De  Repuh.  lib.  ii.  ch.  vi.).  This  may  be  a  hint  to 
modern  Socialists,  especialty  to  those  of  Germany,  where  So- 
cialism seems  to  be  becoming  the  creed  of  the  masses,  in  des- 
pair at  ever  hearing  any  good  thing  from  the  military  despots 
now  in  power,  Aristotle  justly  observes  that  the  laws  require 
to  be  much  more  definite  and  precise  in  a  state  where  property 
is  equalised,  than  in  others,  since,  in  ordinary  circumstances, 
an  mcrease  of  population  would  only  occasion  a  further  sub- 
division of  landed  property,  whereas,  m  a  state  of  communism. 


OF  THORIAS  R.  MALTHUS.  21 

the  supernumeraries  would  be  altogether  destitute,  because  the 
lands,  being  reduced  to  equal  elementary  parts,  would  be  in- 
capable of  further  sub- division.  He  remarks  that  it  is  neces- 
sary^ in  all  cases  to  regulate  the  number  of  children,  so  that 
they  may  not  exceed  the  proi3er  number.  In  doing  this,  death 
and  steriHty  are  of  course  to  be  taken  into  account.  But  if, 
he  says  in  chapter  vii.,  every  person  be  left  free  to  have  as 
many  children  as  he  pleases,  the  necessary  consequence  will  be 
poverty:  and  poverty  is  the  mother  of  crime  and  sedition. 
For  these  very  reasons,  an  ancient  writer  on  politics,  Pheidon 
of  Corinth,  introduced  a  regulation  to  limit  population  without 
equalising  wealth. 

Speaking  again,  in  book  ii.  ch.  vii.,  of  schemes  for  the  equal- 
isation of  wealth,  Aristotle  says  that,  in  order  that  such  schemes 
should  be  successful,  it  would  be  imperative  to  regulate  at  the 
same  time  the  size  of  families.  For,  if  children  multiply  be- 
yond the  means  of  supporting  them,  the  law  will  necessarily 
be  broken,  and  families  will  be  suddenly  reduced  from 
opulence  to  beggary,  a  revolution  always  dangerous  to  public 
tranquility.  In  Sparta  the  landed  property  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  a  very  small  number  of  the  citizens :  and  Aristotle 
remarks  that  in  such  a  state  the  encouragement  of  large  families 
by  rewards  could  only  have  for  its  effect  to  cause  an  immense 
accumulation  of  indigence,  so  long  as  a  better  distribution  of 
the  land  were  not  secured.  It  would  have  been  well  for 
European  nations  up  to  this  time,  had  their  rulers  known  even 
as  much  as  Aristotle  and  Plato  of  this  matter :  they  would  have 
avoided  those  disastrous  historical  incentives  to  procreation, 
which  must  always  have  ended  only  in  increasing  indigence 
and  premature  death. 

The  positive  checks  to  population  in  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  are  palpable  enough.  Incessant  wars,  plagues,  and 
famines  prevailed.  Livy  expresses  his  surprise  that  the  Volci 
and  uEqui,  who  were  so  often  destroyed  by  the  Romans,  should 
have  been  able  to  bring  fresh  armies  into  the  field,  but  when 
the  principle  of  population  is  understood,  our  astonishment 
ceases.  Such  conquered  tribes,  like  the  ancient  Germans, 
doubtless  gave  full  scope  to  the  powers  of  procreation,  and 
hence  were  soon  as  numerous  as  before  their  defeat.  And  yet 
it  seems  clear  that  the  horrible  practice  of  infanticide  was 
very  common  in  Italy,  for  Romulus  was  supposed  already  to 
have  forbidden  it,  though  the  constant  warfare  of  the  Romans 
must  have  lessened  the  necessity  for  this  check.  The  Roman 
population  of  Italy  soon  fell  off  when  the  land  passed  into  the 


22  THE  LIFE  AKD  WRITINGS 

hands  of  a  few  great  proprietors,  since  the  other  classes,  having 
no  means  of  selling  their  labour,  or  competing  with  the 
numerous  slaves  of  the  wealthy,  would  have  been  entirely 
starved,  had  it  not  been  for  the  curious  custom  which  arose  of 
distributing  large  quantities  of  corn  gratis  to  the  poorer  or 
landless  citizens.  No  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  were 
thus  fed  in  Augustus'  reign,  and  probably  had  little  else  to 
depend  upon.  Hence  the  poorer  free  citizens  could  not  in- 
crease, and  they  are  said  to  have  been  constantly  in  the  habit 
of  exposing  their  unfortunate  children,  since  the  quantity  of 
food  doled  out  was  not  enough  for  a  family  to  subsist  upon. 

The  jus  triiini  lileroriwi  (law  for  rewarding  fathers  of  three 
children)  could  effect  nothing  in  such  circumstances,  in  mak- 
ing the  poor  give  birth  to  large  families,  although  it  may 
occasionally  have  tempted  the  landed  proprietors  to  increase 
their  families.  Had  the  poor  had  large  numbers  of  children 
in  such  a  miserable  state  of  society,  they  must  have  been  born 
only  to  die  of  starvation,  since  the  food  doled  out  by  the 
Government  was  not  sufficient  to  feed  all. 

Positive  laws  to  encourage  marriage,  says  Mr.  Malthus^ 
enacted  on  the  urgency  of  the  occasion,  and  not  mixed  with 
religion,  as  in  China  and  some  other  countries,  are  seldom  cal- 
culated to  answer  the  end  they  aim  at,  and  therefore  generally 
indicate  ignorance  in  the  legislator  who  proposes  them ;  but 
the  apparent  necessity  of  them  almost  always  indicates  a  very 
great  degree  of  moral  and  political  depravity  in  the  State ; 
and  in  the  countries  in  which  they  are  most  strongly  insisted 
on,  not  only  vicious  manners  will  be  found  to  prevail,  but 
political  institutions  extremely  unfavourable  to  industry,  and, 
consequently,  to  population. 

On  this  account  Malthus  entirely  disagreed  with  Hume,  who 
supposed  that  the  Eoman  world  was  probably  most  populous 
during  the  long  peace  under  Trajan  and  the  Antonines.  Wars, 
he  says,  do  not  depopulate  much  while  industry  continues  in 
vigour:  and  peace  will  not  increase  the  number  of  people 
when  they  cannot  find  means  of  subsistence.  **  The  renewal 
of  the  laws  relating  to  marriage  under  Trajan  indicates  the 
continued  prevalence  of  vicious  habits,  and  of  a  languishing 
industry,  and  seems  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  supposition  of 
a  great  increase  of  population." 

Hume  also  thought  that  the  population  of  the  ancient  world 
was  greater  than  in  modern  times,  because,  he  said,  there  were 
hosts  of  domestic  servants  in  modern  States  remaining  unmar- 
ried.    But  the  contrary  inference,  says  Malthus,  seems  to  b« 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTIIUS.  23 

the  more  probable.  When  the  difficulties  attending  the  rear- 
ing of  a  family  are  very  great,  and,  consequently,  many  persons 
of  both  sexes  remain  single,  we  may  naturally  suppose  that  the 
population  is  stationary,  but  by  no  means  that  it  is  not  abso- 
lutely great ;  because  the  difficulty  of  rearing  a  family  may 
arise  from  the  very  circumstance  of  a  very  great  absolute  po- 
pulation, and  the  consequent  fulness  of  all  the  channels  to  a 
livelihood  ;  though  the  same  difficulty  may  undoubtedly  exist 
in  a  thinly  peopled  country,  vi^hich  is  yet  stationary  in  its 
population. 

The  number  of  unmarried  persons  in  proportion  to  the  whole 
number,  says  Malthus,  may  form  some  criterion  by  which  we 
may  judge  whether  population  is  increasing,  stationary,  or 
decreasing  ;  but  will  not  enable  us  to  determine  anything 
resjoecting  absolute  populousness.  Yet  even  in  this  point  we 
may  be  deceived,  since,  in  some  southern  countries  early  mar- 
riages are  general,  and  very  few  women  remain  in  a  state  of 
celibacy,  j^et  the  people  not  only  do  not  increase,  but  the  actual 
number  is  perhaps  small.  In  this  case  the  removal  of  the 
preventive  check  is  made  up  by  the  excessive  force  of  the 
positive  check.  The  sum  of  all  the  positive  and  preventive 
checks  taken  together,  forms,  undoubtedly,  the  immediate 
cause  which  represses  population  ;  but  we  never  can  expect  to 
obtain  and  estimate  accurately  this  sum  in  any  country  :  and 
we  can  certainly  draw  no  safe  conclusion  from  the  contem- 
plation of  two  or  three  of  these  checks  taken  by  themselves, 
because  it  so  frequently  happens  that  the  excess  of  one  check 
is  balanced  by  the  defect  of  some  other. 

Causes  which  affect  the  number  of  births  or  deaths  may  or 
may  not  affect  the  average  population,  according  to  circum- 
stances ;  but  causes  whicJi  affect  the  production  and  distribution 
of  the  means  of  subsistence  must  neceasarily  affect  population ; 
and  it  is  therefore  on  these  causes,  besides  actual  enumerations, 
on  which  we  can  with  any  certainty  rely.  "  All  the  checks  to 
population,  which  have  been  hitherto  considered  in  the  course 
of  this  review  of  human  society,  are  clearly  resolvable  into 
moral  restraint,  vice,  and  misery." 

With  regard,  then,  to  the  checks  to  population  in  ancient 
Home,  Mr.  Malthus  thinks  that  moral  restraint  acted  but 
feebly  in  restraining  the  increase  of  numbers.  And  of  the 
other  branch  of  the  preventive  check,  which  comes  under  the 
denomination  of  "  vice,"  according  to  Mr.  Malthus,  though  its 
effect  seems  to  have  been  very  considerable  in  the  later  periods 
of  Roman  history  and  in  some  other  count^''°!s;  yet,  on  the 


24  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

whole,  he  thinks  its  operation  was  much  inferior  to  the  positive 
checks.  A  large  portion  of  the  procreative  power  was  called 
into  action  among  the  Romans,  the  redundancy  being  checked 
by  violent  causes,  among  which  war  was  the  most  prominent 
and  striking,  and  after  which  came  famines  and  violent  diseases. 
In  most  of  these  ancient  nations  the  population  seems 
to  have  been  seldom  measured  accurately  according  to  the 
average  and  permanent  means  of  subsistence,  bat  generally  to 
have  vibrated  between  the  two  extremes,  and  therefore  the 
contrasts  between  want  and  plenty  were  strongly  marked,  as 
might  be  expected  in  the  earlier  and  less  experienced  ages  of 
human  society. 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  25- 


CHAPTER   IV. 

CHECKS  TO  POPULATION  IN  MODERN  EUROPE. 

BOOK  ij.  of  Malthus'  Essay  treats  of  the  checks  to  popula- 
tion  in  the  different  States  of  modern  Europe, — Norway, 
Sweden,  Kussia,  German}'-,  Switzerland,  France,  Great  Britain,, 
and  Ireland.  In  Malthus'  day,  Norway  seems  to  have  been, 
perhaps,  the  most  prosperous  country  in  Europe  ;  and  it  was 
distinguished  by  the  great  healthiness  of  its  people.  The 
death-rate  he  puts  down  as  only  one  in  48,  in  a  population  of 
about  three-quarters  of  a  million. 

With  such  a  very  low  positive  check,  Malthus  at  once  looked 
tor  the  existence  of  a  very  high  prevenlive  check  ;  and  found 
this  to  be  present  in  the  very  small  proportion  of  marriages 
(one  in  130)  taking  place  annually  in  Norway. 

There  were,  then  as  now,  no  large  manufacturing  towns  in 
Norway  to  take  away  the  overflowing  population  of  the  coun- 
try ;  and,  hence,  as  emigration  was  not  then  in  vogue,  the 
Norwegian  peasant  seldom  left  the  village  he  was  born  in. 
Until,  then,  some  married  person  died,  there  was  usually  no 
place  for  another  marriage  to  take  place.  "In  countries 
more  fully  peopled  (says  Malthus)  this  subject  is  always  in- 
volved in  great  obscurity.  Each  man  naturally  thinks  that 
he  has  as  good  a  chance  of  finding  employment  as  his  neigh- 
bour, and  that  if  he  fail  in  one  place  he  shall  succeed  in 
another.  He  marries,  therefore,  and  trusts  to  fortune  :  and 
the  effect  too  frequently  is,  that  the  redundant  population  oc- 
casioned in  this  manner  is  repressed  by  the  positive  checks  of 
poverty  and  disease." 

It  is  without  doubt,  says  our  author,  owing  to  the  preventive 
check  to  population,  as  much  as  to  any  peculiar  healthiness  of 
air,  that  the  mortality  of  Norway  is  so  low.  In  every  country 
the  principal  mortality  takes  place  among  very  young  children  ; 
and  the  smaller  number  of  these  in  Norway,  in  proportion  to 
the  whole  population,  will  naturally  occasion  a  smaller  mor- 
tality than  in  other  countries,  supposing  the  climate  to  be 
equally  healthy. 

The  population  of  Norway  is  now  about  1,800,000,  a  very 
large  accession  since  the  days  of  Malthus,  and  there  has  o£ 


26  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

late  years  been  a  very  large  emigration  from  that  country  to 
the  United  States,  which  indicates  that,  in  all  probability,  there 
will  soon  be  less  of  prudential  restraint  in  the  matter  of  births, 
and  hence,  doubtless,  a  higher  death-rate  than  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  century.  The  former  low  death-rate  of  Norway, 
one  in  48,  is  not  attained  to  at  present  by  almost  any  Eu- 
ropean State  except  Norway.  It  is  little  more  than  20  per 
1000  per  annum. 

Malthus  mentions  in  his  work  that  Norway  is  almost  the 
only  country  in  Europe  where  a  traveller  will  hear  any  appre- 
hensions exiDressed  of  a  redundant  population,  and  where  the 
danger  to  the  happiness  of  the  lower  classes  of  people  from 
this  cause,  is  in  some  degree  seen  and  understood.  "  This  ob- 
viously arises  from  the  smallness  of  the  population  altogether 
and  the  consequent  narrowness  of  the  subject.  If  our  attention 
were  confined  to  one  parish,  and  there  were  no  power  of  emi- 
grating from  it,  the  most  careless  observer  could  not  fail  to 
remark  that,  if  all  married  at  twenty,  it  would  be  perfectly 
impossible  for  the  farmers,  however  carefully  they  might  im- 
prove their  land,  to  find  employment  and  food  for  those  that 
would  grow  up  ;  but  when  a  great  number  of  these  parishes 
are  added  together  in  a  populous  kingdom,  the  largeness  of  the 
subject  and  the  power  of  moving  from  place  to  place  obscure 
and  confuse  our  view.  We  lose  sight  of  a  truth  which  before 
appeared  completely  obvious ;  and  in  a  most  unaccountable 
manner  attribute  to  the  aggregate  quantity  of  land  a  power  of 
supporting  people  beyond  comparison  greater  than  the  sum 
•of  all  its  parts." 

In  Sweden,  in  Mr.  Malthus'  day,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
towns  were  only  one-thirtieth  part  of  the  whole  population  ; 
and  the  mortality,  when  Malthus  wrote,  seems  to  have  been  as 
high  as  one  in  35.  The  proportion  of  yearly  marriages  he 
found,  in  Sweden,  to  be  about  one  in  112  :  varying  from  one 
in  100,  in  good  years,  to  one  in  124,  in  bad  ones.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  the  marriage-rate  in  Norway  was  but  one  in 
135,  against  one  in  112  in  Sweden,  the  reason  of  the  high 
death-rate  is  at  once  explained. 

As  usual,  in  Europe  at  that  time,  however,  Swedish  legis- 
lators were  in  the  habit  of  endeavouring  to  increase  population 
in  all  sorts  of  foolish  ways,  as,  for  instance,  by  encouraging 
strangers  to  settle  in  the  country.  Malthus  remarks  that,  by 
doing  so,  the  Grovemment  of  Sweden  was  merely  raising  the 
already  high  death-rate,  and  not  really  increasing  the  population 
at  all. 


OP  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  27 

According  to  the  economist,  Cantzlaer,  the  principal  measures 
in  which  the  Government  had  been  employed  for  the  encou- 
ragement of  the  population  were  the  establishment  ot  Colleges 
•of  Medicine,  and  of  Lying-in  and  Foundling  Hospitals.  Mal- 
thus  remarks,  that  *'  the  example  of  the  hospitals  of  France 
may  create  a  doubt  whether  such  establishments  are  universally 
to  be  recommended.  Foundling  hospitals,  whether  they  attain 
their  professed  object  or  not,  are,  in  every  view,  hurtful  to  the 
.State." 

The  population  of  Sweden,  in  1751,  was  2,229,000.  It  is 
mow  4,400,000.  There  has  recently  been,  as  from  Norway,  a 
very  large  emigration  from  that  State  to  America.  "TTie 
sickly  periods  in  Sweden  (says  Malthus)  which  have  retarded 
i;he  increase  of  its  population,  appear  in  general  to  have  arisen 
from  the  unwholesome  nourishment  occasioned  by  severe  want. 
And  this  want  has  been  caused  by  unfavourable  seasons  falling 
npon  a  country  which  was  without  any  reserved  store,  either 
in  its  general  exports,  or  in  the  liberal  division  of  food  to  the 
labourer  in  common  years,  and  which  was  therefore  peopled 
up  to  its  produce  before  the  occurrence  of  the  scanty  harvest. 
Such  a  state  of  things  is  a  clear  proof  that  if,  as  some  of  the 
Swedish  economists  assert,  their  country  ought  to  have  a  j3opu- 
lation  of  nine  or  ten  millions,  they  have  nothing  further  to  do 
than  to  make  it  produce  food  sufficient  for  such  a  number,  and 
they  may  rest  perfectly  assured  that  they  will  not  want  mouths 
to  eat  it,  without  the  assistance  of  lying-in  and  foundling 
hospitals." 

With  regard  to  the  State  of  Eussia  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  Malthus  has  left  us  a  most  interesting  account  derived 
from  queries  made  during  his  travels  in  that  country.  At  that 
■  date,  the  births  in  some  parts  of  Russia  were,  to  the  deaths, 
according  to  Russian  statistics,  nearly  as  three  to  one.  This 
jreminds  us  moderns  of  1879,  of  the  birth  and  death-rate  of 
our  happy  colony  of  New  Zealand,  where  in  1877,  there  was 
the  prodigious  birth-rate  of  41  per  1000,  with  the  very  low 
death-rate  of  only  12-4.  Russian  mortality,  in  Malthus'  time, 
must  have  been  very  low  indeed ;  and  Mr.  Tooke,  in  his  View 
of  the  Russian  E?}ipire,  published  about  that  time,  made  out  that 
the  general  mortality  in  Russia  was  one  in  58  of  the  population 
annually.  This  is  incredible,  we  think,  in  such  an  uncivilised 
State  as  Russia  then  was. 

The  birth-rate  in  Russia  was,  at  that  date,  about  40  per 
1,000,  or  similar  to  that  of  New  Zealand.  The  marriage-rate 
^one  in  90)  was  vastly  higher  than  that  of  Norway  (one  in 


28  THE  LIFE  AND    vVRITINGS 

130),  SO  that  the  population  of  Eiissia  was  evidently  increasing- 
most  rapidly  at  that  time.  If  we  are  to  give  any  credit  to  the 
healthiness  of  Russia  in  Malthus'  time,  it  is  clear  that  the  citj 
of  Saint  Petersburg  was  an  exception  to  it,  for  the  half  of  all 
persons  born  there  lived  only  till  the  age  of  25. 

With  regard  to  foundling  hospitals,  Mr.  Malthus'  visit  to- 
the  renowned  Russian  State  hospitals  of  this  description,  has 
often  been  quoted,  and  deserves  to  be  attentively  studied  by 
all  who  speak  of  the  question  of  illegitimacy  and  charity. 
Malthus  found  the  mortality  in  the  Maison  des  Efi/ans  troiives 
prodigious.  One  hundred  deaths  a  month  was  a  common 
average.  The  average  number  of  children  taken  into  this 
charity  was  at  that  time  ten  daily,  and  the  death-rate  terrible 
and  heart-rending.  Children  were  taken  in  and  no  questions 
asked  from  the  mothers,  but  were  handed  over  to  nurses,  and 
given  back  to  their  parents  at  any  time  when  they  could  prova 
themselves  able  to  support  them. 

The  country  nurses  to  whom  these  unfortunate  children  were- 
given  were  paid  only  some  fifteen-pence  a  week,  and  the 
chilcfren  were  received  into  that  hospital  without  any  limit. 
The  children  returned  from  the  country  (when  they  did  return, 
for  most  of  them  diedj,  at  the  age  of  six  or  seven ;  and  the 
girls  left  the  charity  at  18,  the  boys  at  20.  The  excessive 
mortality  of  the  London  Foundling  Hospital  of  former  days, 
caused  it  to  be  forced  almost  entirely  to  close  its  doors ;  and 
to  become,  what  it  now  is,  one  of  the  many  useless  charities 
and  shams  of  the  metropolis  of  Mr.  Malthus'  native  land. 

Mr.  Malthus  also  speaks  of  the  great  mortality  of  the  Mos- 
cow Foundling  Hospital,  which  was  instituted  in  1786,  as 
follows  :  "  It  appears  to  me  that  the  greatest  part  of  this  mor- 
tality is  clearly  to  be  attributed  to  these  institutions,  miscalled 
'philanthropical.'  If  any  reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  ac- 
counts given  of  the  infant  mortality  in  the  Russian  towns  and 
provinces,  it  would  appear  to  be  unusually  small.  The  great- 
ness of  it,  therefore,  in  the  foundling  hospitals,  may  justly  be 
laid  to  the  account  of  the  institutions  which  encourage  a  mother 
to  desert  her  child,  at  the  very  time  when,  of  all  others,  it 
stands  most  in  need  of  her  fostering  care.  The  frail  tenure 
by  which  an  infant  holds  its  life  will  not  allow  of  a  remitted. 
attention,  even  for  a  few  hours." 

Foundling  Hospitals,  it  is  clear,  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and  in  all 
countries,  tend  to  cause  women  to  become  thoughtless  and 
heartless.  Malthus,  indeed,  makes  a  remark  which  we  have 
recently  heard  paralleled  in  Vienna.     "  An  English  merchant 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  29 

■at  Saint  Petersburg  told  me  that  a  Kussian  girl,  living  in  his 
family,  under  a  mistress  who  was  considered  as  very  strict, 
had  sent  six  children  to  the  Foundling;-  hosjDital,  without  the 
loss  of  her  place.  And  with  regard  to  the  moral  feelings  of  a 
nation,  it  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  that  they  must  not  be 
very  sensibly  impaired  by  encouraging  mothers  to  desert  their 
•offspring,  and  endeavouring  to  teach  them  that  their  love  for 
their  new-born  infants  is  a  prejudice,  which  it  is  the  interest 
of  their  country  to  eradicate." 

Malthus  mentions  that  the  population  of  Russia,  in  1796, 
was  36,000,000.  At  present  it  is  computed  at  eighty-five  and 
a  half  millions,  only  seven  millions  of  which  is  found  in  Asia, 
and  the  rest  in  Europe. 

A  Government  that  had  a  true  sense  of  what  was  advan- 
tageous for  its  subjects  would,  instead  of  offering  encourageinents 
to  population,  and  incentives  to  thoughtlessness  on  the  part  of 
parents,  such  as  foundling  hospitals  and  other  charities,  en- 
tourage, by  all  means  in  its  power,  the  feeling  of  parental 
responsibility  among  all  classes.  To  do  this,  the  most  direct 
way  would  be,  to  show  by  some  slight  fine  on  the  production 
•of  large  families,  that  there  is  no  jDussibility  of  attaining  com- 
fort and  a  low  death-rate  without  conjugal  prudence. 

In  Chapter  ix.  of  Book  ii.,  Malthus  treats  on  the  Checks 
io  Population  in  the  Middle  parts  of  Europe  at  the  beginning 
of  this  century.  He  makes  the  observation  that  there  are  few 
•countries  where  the  poorer  classes  have  so  much  foresight  as  to 
defer  marriage  till  they  have  a  fair  prospect  of  being  able  to 
dsupport  projjerly  all  their  children:  and  in  all  countries,  he 
adds,  a  great  mortality,  whether  arising  from  the  too  great 
frequency  of  marriage,  or  occasioned  by  the  number  of  towns 
and  the  natural  unhealthiness  of  the  situation,  will  necessarily 
produce  a  great  frequency  of  marriage. 

In  Holland,  in  the  registers  of  twenty-two  villages,  Suss- 
milch  noted  one  marriage  to  every  64  persons  living,  the 
usual  rate  being  about  1  in  120.  Malthus  says  he  was  for 
some  time  puzzled  at  this  high  annual  marriage  rate,  until  he 
found  that  the  mortality  in  these  villages  was  actually  45  per 
1,000  of  the  population.  Tiie  extraordinary'-  number  of 
marriages  was  merely  produced  by  the  rapid  dissolution  of  the 
old  marriages  by  death,  and  the  consequent  vacancy  of  some 
omployment  by  which  a  family  might  be  sujjported.  In 
Norway  the  mortalit}^  in  his  day  was  only  22  per  1,000,  and 
the  annual  marriage  rate  1  in  130.  This  is  a  notable  contrast 
with  the  figures  relating  to  Holland  just  quoted. 


so  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

Of  late  years  the  birth  and  death-rate  in  Holland  have  beett- 
much  more  satisfactory  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  Malthus  r 
but  the  extreme  poverty  of  the  working  classes  in  South,  as 
compared  with  North-Holland,  has  been  recently  shown  by 
Mr.  S.  Van  Houten  to  result  in  a  far  higher  birth-i-ate  and 
death-rate  in  the  districts  adjoining  Rotterdam,  than  occurs 
among  the  more  prudent  and  well-fed  inhabitants  of  Gron- 
ingen.  Still,  there  have  been  j^ears  quite  recently  in  Holland,, 
when  the  death-rate  has  been  as  high  as  29  per  1,000  (ISTl)^' 
and  e\^n  as  lately  as  1875  it  was  25  per  1,000. 

The  standard  of  comfort  has  greatly  changed  in  several 
cities  in  Germany.  Thus,  in  Leipsig,  Malthus  mentions  that, 
in  1620,  the  annual  marriage-rate  was  1  in  82 :  whilst  it  fell 
in  1756  to  1  in  120.  He  observes  that,  in  countries  which 
have  long  been  fully  peopled,  and  in  which  no  new  sources  of 
subsistence  are  opening,  the  marriages  being  regulated  princi- 
i^ally  by  the  deaths,  will  generally  bear  nearly  the  same 
proportion  to  the  whole  population,  at  one  period  as  another. 
In  Berlin,  at  the  commencement  of  this  centurj',  the  annual 
marriage-rate  was  1  in  110,  whilst  it  was  1  in  137  at  Paris. 
Berlin,  then  as  now,  was  probably  a  very  unhealth}^  city. 
The  death-rate  of  infants  there  at  present  is  said  to  amount 
to  one-half  of  all  born  in  the  first  year  of  life  in  some  years. 

Direct  encouragements  to  marriage  are,  says  Malthus,  either 
perfectly  futile,  or  produce  a  marriage  when  there  is  no  place 
for  one,  thus  increasing  the  mortahty.  Montesquieu,  Suss- 
milch,  and  other  authors  thought  that  princes  and  statesmen 
would  really  merit  the  name  of  fathers  of  their  people,  if  from 
the  proportion  of  1  in  120 — 125,  they  could  increase  the  mar- 
riages to  the  proportion  of  1  in  80  or  90.  But,  sa^^s  Malthus, 
as  this  would  greatlj^  raise  the  death-rate  and  the  poverty  in 
the  State,  such  princes  would  more  justh^  deserve  the  title  of 
destroj^ers  of  the  peo23le.  Had  Mr.  Malthus  lived  in  our  day, 
he  would  have  been  aware  that  a  high  marriage-rate  is  not  by 
any  means  necessarily  followed  by  a  high  bivth-rate,  since,  in 
modern  France,  where  there  are  the  greatest  number  of 
married  women  in  proportion  to  pojDulation,  over  the  age  of 
15,  of  any  European  state,  the  birth- rate  is  lower  than  in  any 
other  European  state.  But,  in  Malthus'  day,  human  beings 
were  still  dominated  greatly  by  instinct,  and  had  not  begun  to 
allow  reason  to  prevail  in  the  most  important  of  all  human 
acts,  that  which  leads  to  the  addition  of  new  members  tO' 
Bociety. 

Mr.  Malthus  mentions  that  it  had  been  calculated  in  his  time^ 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  31' 

tUat,  when  the  proportion  of  the  people  in  towns  in  any  State 
was  to  those  in  the  country  as  1  to  3,  then  the  mortality  was 
about  28  per  1,000,  rising  to  32  in  1,000,  when  the  proportion 
of  townsmen  to  countrymen  was  as  3  to  7  ;  and  falling  below 
28  per  1,000  when  the  townsmen  are  to  the  countrymen  as 
1  to  4.  This  holds  true  in  principle  in  modern  times  :  and  it 
is  out  of  the  question  to  expect  to  have  the  death-rate  of  large- 
cities  as  low  as  it  is  in  country  districts  inhabited  by  well-fed 
peasants. 

In  chapter  vi.  our  author  speaks  of  the  checks  to  jDopulation 
in  Switzerland.  From  statistics  existing  in  Geneva,  it  seems 
that  in  that  town,  during  the  sixteenth  century,  the  probability 
of  life,  or  the  age  to  which  half  of  those  born  live,  was  only 
4.88,  or  rather  less  than  5  ;  and  the  mean  life  was  about  18^ 
years.  In  the  seventeenth  century  the  probability  of  life  was 
11^,  and  the  mean  life  23 J.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the 
probability  of  life  had  increased  to  27,  and  the  mean  life  to  32. 

M,  Muret,  a  Swiss  clergyman  of  Vevey,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  mentions  the  case  of  a  village  called  Leyzin,  with  a 
population  of  400  persons,  where  there  were  only  eight  births 
a  year.  The  probability  of  life  in  this  model  parish  appeared  to 
be  so  extraordinarily  high  as  to  reach  61  years.  And  the 
average  number  of  the  births  having  been  for  30  years  almost 
accurately  equal  to  the  number  of  deaths,  clearly  proved  that 
the  habits  of  the  people  had  not  led  them  to  emigrate,  and  that 
the  resources  of  the  parish  for  the  support  of  the  population 
had  remained  nearly  stationary.  As  the  marriages  in  this 
parish  would,  with  few  exceptions,  be  very  late,  it  is  evident 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  subsisting  marriages  would 
be  among  persons  so  far  advanced  in  life  that  the  women  had 
ceased  to  bear.  The  births  were  only  about  1  in  49  of  the 
population  or  much  fewer  than  in  France  of  modern  days  (1  in 
40).  In  England  they  are  1  in  28  of  the  population  at 
present. 

M.  Muret  made  some  calculations  at  Vevey  respecting  the 
fecundity  of  marriages.  He  found  that  375  mothers  had 
produced  2,003  children  :  ?*.,•;.,  about  ^Jx  children  each  :  and  he 
also  found  that  there  were  20  sterile  women  out  of  478,  or 
about  1  in  23  wives.  Taking  this  into  account,  the  average 
number  of  children  to  a  family  at  Vevey  was  5^.  In  modern 
France  it  is  about  3,  in  Prussia  4  •  68,  and  in  England  about 
41.  In  those  days,  the  proportion  of  annual  marriages  to 
population  was  lower  in  the  Canton  de  Vaud  than  even  in  Nor- 
way, being  only  ]  in  140.     In  the  model  village   of  Leyzia 


32  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

only  one -fifth  of  tlie  total  mortality  was  among  persons  under 
fifteen.  Such  were  the  results  of  what  Mr.  I\[althus  considered 
as  the  only  true  "  moral  restraint,"  late  marriages.  All  these 
calculations  of  M.  Muret  imply  the  operation  of  the  preventive 
check  to  population  in  a  very  great  degree  in  the  Canton  de 
Vaud.  In  the  town  of  Berne,  the  proportion  of  unmarried 
persons,  including  widows  and  widowers,  was  considerably  above 
the  half  of  the  adults,  and  the  proportion  of  the  living  below 
sixteen  to  those  above  was  nearly-  as  1  to  3  in  the  beginning 
of  this  century.  The  peasants  in  Berne  were  noted  for  com- 
fort and  wealth,  doubtless  owing  to  the  low  birth-rate  in  that 
country.  A  law  there  prevented  those  who  had  no  means  from 
marrying. 

Mr.  IMalthus  gives  an  amusing  account  of  a  conversation  he 
had  with  a  peasant  who  went  with  him  from  the  Lac  de  Joux 
to  the  sources  of  the  river  Orbe.  This  man  said  that  the  habit 
if  early  marriage  might  be  really  said  to  be  the  vice  of  the 
country  :  and  he  was  so  strongly  impressed  with  the  necessary 
and  unavoidable  wretchedness  that  must  result  from  it,  that  he 
thought  a  law  ought  to  be  made  restricting  men  from  entering 
into  the  married  state  before  they  were  forty  years  of  age, 
and  then  allowing  it  only  with  old  maids,  who  might  bear 
them  two  or  three  children  instead  of  six  or  eight.  That 
peasant  would  have  been,  we  doubt  not,  one  of  the  most 
zealous  advocates  of  the  /wo  children  system,  so  wonderfully 
carred  out  in  man}'  of  the  most  flourishing  districts  of  France, 
and  probably  would  have  abandoned  all  desire  to  keep  pru- 
dent couples  like  those  in  these  French  districts  from  marrying. 
We  hold  with  that  simjjle  peasant  of  the  Jura,  who  had  learnt 
the  truths  he  expounded  by  sad  and  cruel  experience,  he  having 
married  himself  when  very  young,  and  with  his  famil}', 
suffered  much  from  poverty,  that  governments  are  culpable 
when  they  do  not  attempt  to  lessen  high  birth-rates.  To  for- 
bid early  marriage,  indeed,  is  to  encourage  prostitution  and 
cause  many  other  evils  ;  but  to  affix  a  stigma  on  those  who 
produce  large  families  is,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  a  plan  which 
can  onh^  jDroduce  good  and  need  produce  no  evil  results.  It 
is  an  utter  misunderstanding  of  the  rights  of  the  individual  to 
suppose  that  each  man  and  woman  ought  to  have  the  right  to 
cause  miseiy  to  their  unfortunate  children,  and  at  the  same  time 
produce  a  pressure  upon  the  powers  of  the  soil  and  lessen  the 
productive  powers  of  past  and  jDresent  labour.  That  this  will 
ere  long  be  seen  to  be  the  truth  arising  out  of  the  discoveries 
^f  the  great  English  professor  we  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt. 


OF  THOMAS  R.  3IALTHUS.  fid 


CHAPTER    V. 

OF  THE  CHECKS  TO  POPULATION  IX  FRANCE. 

IN  the  sixth  chapter  of  Book  II.,  Mr.  Malthiis  gives  us  som& 
account  of  the  checks  to  population  which  existed  in 
Prance  at  the  end  of  last  century,  which  might  convince  the 
most  sceptical  of  modern  pessimists  of  the  vast  strides  which 
41  nation  may  take  in  a  short  period  towards  the  attainment  of 
-comfort  and  well-being. 

The  population  of  France,  before  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
«ays  Malthus,  was  estimated  by  the  Constituent  Assembly  at 
SCiJ  millions.  Necker  estimated  the  yearly  births,  in  1780,  to 
loe  above  a  million,  and  it  is  curious,  as  we  shall  soon  see.  that 
France,  in  1874,  had  not  a  million  of  births  with  a  population 
of  36  millions.  Malthus  estimated  that,  out  of  that  million, 
600,000  would  attain  the  a2;e  of  18  ;  and,  considering  that 
nearly  as  many  persons  are  to  be  found  in  a  given  society,  un- 
married as  married,  he  amply  accounts  for  the  seeming  paradox 
that,  whilst  France  was  supposed  to  have  lost  2  J  millions  by 
actual  war  and  its  consequences,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
the  population  was  found  to  have  increased,  in  1800,  as 
compared  with  1790. 

*'  At  all  times."  says  Malthus,  "the  number  of  small  farmers 
and  proprietors  in  France  was  great :  and  though  such  a  state 
of  things  is  by  no  means  favourable  to  the  clear  surplus  pro- 
duce or  disposable  wealth  of  a  nation,  yet  sometimes  it  is  not 
unfavourable  to  the  absolute  produce,  and  it  has  always  a 
tendency  to  encourage  population."  This  last  remark  of  Mr. 
IM.ilthus  has  not  been  verified.  In  no  country  does  the  popu- 
lation tend  to  increase  so  slowly  as  in  modern  France  —the 
land  par  excellence  of  peasant  proprietors.  In  all  probability, 
the  rapid  increase  of  population  at  the  time  of  the  French 
Revolution  arose  from  the  lower  death-  rate  which  always  fol- 
lows a  sudden  amelioration  of  the  position  of  the  humbler 
-3lasses,  such  as  that  which  took  place  where  landed  projDerty 
■came  into  their  possession. 

The  average  proportion  of  births  to  population  in  all  France, 
before  the  Revolution  was.  according  to  Necker,  39  per  1000. 
It  has  singularly  altered  since  that  time,  and  is  now  only  26 
per  1,000,  or  the  lowest  birth-rate  in  Europe.    The  death-rate 


34  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

then  was  33  per  1,000,  and  has  fallen  of  late  to  21  per  1,000^ 
or  nearly  the  lowest  death-rate  in  Europe. 

Sir  Francis  d'lvernois,  in  a  work  entitled  Tableau  des  Pertes, 
has  the  following  remark :  "  Those  have  yet  to  learn  the  first 
principles  of  political  arithmetic,  who  imagine  that  it  is  in  the 
field  of  battle  and  the  hospitals,  that  an  account  can  be  taken 
of  the  lives  which  a  revolution  or  a  war  has  cost.  The  num- 
ber of  men  it  has  killed  is  of  much  less  importance  than  the 
number  of  children  which  it  has  prevented,  and  will  still  pre- 
vent, from  coming  into  the  world."  To  this  Mr.  Malthus 
replies  :  "And  yet  if  the  circumstances  on  which  the  foregoing 
reasonings  are  founded  should  turn  out  to  be  true,  it  will  appear 
that  France  has  not  lost  a  single  birth  by  the  revolution.  She 
has  the  most  just  reason  to  mourn  the  two  millions  and  a  half" 
of  individuals  which  she  may  have  lost,  but  not  their  posterity  : 
because,  if  those  individuals  had  remained  in  the  country,  a 
proportionate  number  of  children  born  of  other  parents,  which 
are  now  living  in  France,  would  not  have  come  into  existence. 
K  in  the  best  governed  country  in  Europe  we  were  to  mourn 
the  posterity  which  is  prevented  from  coming  into  being,  we- 
should  always  wear  the  habit  of  grief." 

•'  It  is  evident,"  he  continues,  "  that  the  constant  tendency 
of  the  births  in  every  country  to  supply  the  vacancies  made 
by  death,  cannot,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  afford  the  slightest 
shadow  of  excuse  for  the  wanton  sacrifice  of  men.  The  posi- 
tive evil  that  is  committed  in  this  case,  the  23ain,  misery,  and 
wide-spreading  desolation  and  sorrow,  that  are  occasioned  to 
the  existing  inhabitants,  can  by  no  means  be  counterbalanced 
by  the  consideration  that  the  numerical  breach  in  the  popula- 
tion will  be  rapidly  repaired.  We  can  have  no  other  right,, 
moral  or  political,  except  that  of  the  most  urgent  necessity, 
to  exchange  the  life  of  beings  in  the  full  vigour  of  their- 
enjoyments  for  an  equal  number  of  helpless  infants." 

The  next  passage  shows  how  immensely  ameliorated  is  the 
condition  of  modern  France,  as  compared  with  that  before  the 
Eevolution.  *'  At  all  times,"  says  our  author,  "  the  number 
of  males  of  a  military  age  in  France  was  small  in  proportion 
to  the  population,  oa  account  of  the  tendency  to  marriage  (1  to 
113  of  the  population,  according  to  Necker),  and  the  great 
number  of  children.  Necker  takes  particular  notice  of  this  cir- 
cumstance. He  observes  that  the  effect  of  the  very  great 
misery  of  the  peasantry  is  to  produce  a  dreadful  mortality  of 
infttnts  under  three  or  four  years  of  age  ;  and  the  consequence ^ 
is  that  the  number  of  young  children  will  always   be  in  too- 


OF  THOMAS  R.   MALTHUS.  85 

^leat  a  proportion  to  the  number  of  grown-up  people.  A 
million  of  individuals,  he  justly  observes,  will,  in  this  case, 
.neither  present  the  same  military  force,  nor  the  same  capac  ity 
of  labour,  as  an  equal  number  of  individuals  in  a  country 
.where  the  people  are  less  miserable.  Switzerland,  before  the 
Revolution,  could  have  brought  into  the  field,  or  have  em- 
ployed in  labour  'a]j[3ropHate  to  grown-up  persons,  one-third 
more  in  proportion  to  her  population,  than  France  at  the  same 
period." 

How  strikingly  all  this  has  been  altered  by  the  prudent 
habits  with  regard  to  families,  induced  by  the  peasant  holdings 
in  France,  is  clearly  seen  by  the  following  statistics : — Between 
the  ages  of  20  and  60  the  human  frame  is  most  capable  of  pro- 
duction, and,  according  to  Kolb,  there  are  in  10,000  persons 
in  the  several  States  in  Europe  the  following  numbers  of  per- 
sons of  the  productive  ages:  In  France,  5,373;  in  Holland, 
4,964;  in  Sweden,  4,954;  in  Great  Britain,  4,732;  and  in 
the  United  States,  4,396.  France  has.  of  all  nations  in  Europe, 
the  highest  average  of  ages  of  the  living.  Thus  it  is  there 
31-06  years;  in  Holland,  27-76  ;  in  Sweden,  27-66  ;  in  Great 
Britain,  26-56;  and  in  the  United  States,  23-10.  And  in 
France  there  are  a  greater  number  of  persons  who  attain  tc 
old  age  than  in  any  other  country,  for,  out  of  100  deaths  there 
are,  in  France,  over  the  age  of  sixty,  36  ;  in  Switzerland,  34  ; 
in  England,  30  ;  in  Belgium,  28  ;  in  Wurtemburg,  21 ;  in 
Prussia,  19  ;  and  in  Austria,  17. 

But  the  most  notable  of  all  the  facts  of  modern  Europe  is  that 
marriages  are  more  prevalent  in  proportion  to  population  in 
France  than  elsewhere,  and,  curiously,  there  is  the  smallest 
number  of  illegitimate  births.  Thus,  the  illegitimate  births 
in  France  were,  from  1825-67,  only  7*27  per  cent,  of  all  births, 
whilst  in  Prussia  they  were  8-24  per  cent,  in  1867;  in  Sweden 
they  were  10  per  cent.;  in  Austria,  11 ;  and  in  Bavaria,  in 
1868,  even  22  per  cent,  of  all  births.  Paris  is  an  exception 
to  this,  for  the  illegitimate  births  there  are  about  one-fourth  of 
all  births. 

France  had,  in  1867,  a  mortality  of  only  1  in  44*24  persons; 
v^hilst  in  Prussia  the  death-rate  was  1  in  33-88,  in  Austria 
1  in  29-72,  in  Holland  1  in  36-25,  and  in  Bavaria  1  in  3465 
inhabitants.  And  here  again  is  a  striking  contrast  of  modem 
France  with  the  country  of  the  days  of  Necker.  France  has 
now  the  lowest  birth-rate  of  Europe.  There  is  but  one  birth 
annually  there  in  39  inhabitants,  whilst  in  Prussia  there 
is  one  birth  in  2547 ;  in  Holland  1  in  29 ;  in  Austria  1  in 


36  THE  LIFE  AND   WRITTNGS 

26  :  in  England  1  in  28  inhabitants.  According  to  an  article 
by  M.  Bertillon  on  Marriage,  in  1877,  the  average  family  to  a 
marriage  in  France  is  at  present  only  3  :  against  4-68  in  Ger- 
many, i3-96  in  Russia,  4*35  in  Spain,  and  4-25  in  England.  This 
is  what  has  been  recently  styled  in  Europe  the  '•two  (or  rather 
three)  Children  System  of  the  French."  When  we  hear  of  the 
absurtlly  high  birth-rate  of  4-68  of  Germany,  need  we  wonder 
that  the  death-rate  in  many  German  towns  sometimes  amounts 
to  oiie-h<ilf  of  all  born  in  the  fir!>t  year  of  life  ? 

France  had,  in  1872,  a  population  of  36,102,921,  and  the 
number  of  births  with  this  population  (966,001)  did  not  come 
up  to  what  it  was  in  the  days  of  Necker,  when  the  population 
was  only  261  millions.  And  whilst  the  population  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  according  to  our  Registrar-General,  is  increasing  at 
the  rate  of  1,173  a  day,  of  which  about  700  are  left  to  swell 
the  home  population,  the  surplus  of  births  over  deaths  in 
France  is  generally  not  much  more  than  some  60,000  persons 
annually  added  to  her  population,  so  that  it  would  take  some 
300  years  for  that  country  to  double  at  its  present  rate. 

Asa  consequence  of  our  great  birth-rate,  36  per  1,000,  there 
is  naturally  a  great  emigration,  amounting,  as  the  Registrar- 
General  tells  us,  to  some  468  persons  daily  from  these  shores 
on  an  average,  an  emigi'ation  which,  as  it  has  been  mainly 
masculine,  has  left  us  a  surplus  of  nearly  one  million  of  women 
in  these  islands.  In  France  there  is  no  great  need  for  emi- 
gration ;  and  hence  but  little  takes  place ;  whilst,  so  contented 
are  the  peasant  proprietors  with  their  homes,  that,  in  1872,  it 
was  found  that  of  the  36  millions  of  France  30|  millions  were 
born  within  the  registration  districts.  This  fact  accounts  for 
the  continuance  of  a  Republic  in  France.  Poverty  is  the  cause 
of  the  ruin  of  Republics. 

We  add  a  few  passages  from  a  recent  author  to  show  how 
great  a  step  has  been  taken  by  the  inhabitants  of  many  parts 
of  France  towards  the  removal  of  that  terrible  indigence  which 
is  found  in  most  European  countries,  and  even  in  less  favoured 
districts  in  France. 

In  an  article  on  Auvergne,  written  in  1874  and  contained 
in  his  work  entitled  Essays  in  Political  and  Moral  Philosophy^ 
which  appeared  last  year,  Mr.  Clifife  Leslie  makes  the  following 
remarks  :  "  The  minute  subdivision  of  land  during  the  last  25 
years  in  the  Limagne,  whatever  may  be  its  tendencies  for 
good  or  evil  in  manners  and  other  respects,  assuredly  cannot 
be  ascribed  to  over-population,  once  regarded  in  England  as 
th©  inevitable  consequence  of  the  French  law  of  succession. 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTIIUS.  37 

....  The  Keport  of  the  Enqiiete  Agricole  on  the  department 
states  :  *  All  the  witnesses  have  declared  that  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal causes  of  the  diminution  of  the  population  is  the  diminu- 
tion of  children  in  families.  Each  family  usually  wishes  for 
only  one  child  ;  and  wlien  there  are  two,  it  is  the  result  of  a 
mistake  [tine  erreur),  or  that  having  had  a  daughter  first,  they 
desire  to  have  a  son.'  A  poor  woman  near  Koyat,  to  whom  I 
put  some  questions  respecting  wages  and  prices,  asked  whether 
my  wife  and  children  were  there,  or  at  one  of  the  other  water- 
ing places,  and  seemed  greatly  surprised  that  I  had  neitlier. 
She  thought  an  English  tourist  must  be  rich  enough  to  have 
several  children;  but  when  asked  how  many  she  had  herself, 
she  answered,  with  a  significant  smile,  *  One  lad  ;  that's  quite 
enough.'  Our  conversation  at  this  point  was  as  follows  : — 
'  Voire  dame  et  vos  enfant  s,  sont  I'ls  a  Roy  at  ?^  '  Non.^  '  Ou 
done?     A   Mont  Dore  ?^      *  Moi,  je  nai  ni  enfant s  ni  femmeS 

*  Quoi  !     Pas  encore  /^ ! '     ^  Et  vous,  comhien  d'eiifants  avez-vous  ?  ' 

*  Un  gars :  cest  hien  assez.  Nous  sommes  tauvres,  mais  vous  etes 
rtche.  Cela  fait  une  petite  difference.'  The  translation  of  which 
is  :  '  Are  your  wife  and  children  at  Roy  at  ?  '  *  No.'  '  Where 
then  ?     At  Mont  Dore  ?  '     *  1  have  neither  wife  nor  children/ 

*  What  !  Not  yet  ?  I  '  *  And  you,  how  many  children  have 
you  ?  '  *  One  buy  :  that  is  quite  enough.  We  are  poor,  but 
you  are  rich.     Tiiat  makjs  a  little  difference.'  '' 

Mr.  Leslie  continues,  p.  421 :  ''  If  over-population  gives  rise 
to  tremendous  problems  in  India,  the  decline  in  the  number 
of  children  in  France  seems  almost  equally  serious.  If  two 
children  are  born  to  each  married  couple,  a  population  must 
decline,  because  a  considerable  number  will  not  reach  ma- 
turity. If  only  one  child  be  born  to  each  pair,  a  nation 
must  rapidly  become  extinct.  The  French  law  of  succession 
is  producing  exactl}^  the  opposite  effect  to  what  was  predicted 
in  this  country.  Had  parents  in  France  complete  testamentary 
power,  there  would  not  be  the  same  reason  for  limiting  the 
number  of  children.  M.  Leon  Iscot,  accordingly,  in  his  evi- 
dence on  this  subject  before  the  Enquete  Agricole  on  the  Puy- 
de-Dome,  said — 'Tae  number  of  births  in  families  has  dimi- 
nished one  half.  We  must  come  to  liberty  of  testation.  In 
countries  like  England,  where  testamentary  liberty  exists, 
families  have  more  childien.  '  " 

Mr.  Leslie  puzzles  us  terribly.  He  recommends,  in  an  essay 
on  The  Celibacy  of  the  Nation,  that  the  state  of  female  celibacy 
should  be  greatly  encouraged  in  all  couuti-ies  that  desire  to 
have   happy  marriages,  but  yet  he  is  agiinst  the  tivo  children 


**©  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

system  of  the  French.  Decidedly,  Mr.  Leslie  has  not  thought 
out  the  question.  He  adds,  on  p.  42-i  :  '*  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  the  change  which  is  taking  place  in  France  in 
respect  of  the  numbers  of  the  population,  there  is  one  change 
of  which  no  other  country  has  equal  reason  to  be  proud.  Its 
agricultural  population  before  the  Eevolution  was  in  the  last 
extremity  of  poverty  and  misery — their  normal  condition  was 
half-starvation  ;  they  could  scarcely  be  said  to  be  clothed ; 
their  appearance  in  many  places  was  hardly  human.  No  other 
country  in  Europe,  taken  as  a  whole,  can  now  show,  upon  the 
whole,  so  comfortable,  happy,  prosperous,  and  respectable  a 
peasantry." 

In  an  article  on  "Holidays  in  Eastern  France,  Seine  et 
Marne,"  in  Frasers  Magazine,  September,  1878,  we  find  this 
13assage:  —  '*  We  are  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  wealthiest 
and  best  cultivated  regions  of  France,  and  when  we  penetrate 
below  the  surface  we  find  that  in  manners  and  customs,  as 
well  as  dress  and  outward  appearance,  the  peasant,  and  agri- 
cultural population  generally,  differ  no  little  from  their  remoter 
fellow-countrymen,  the  Bretons.  .  .  .  There  is  no  superstition, 
hardly  a  trace  of  poverty,  and  little  that  is  poetic.  The  people 
are  rich,  laborious,  and  progressive.  ...  It  is  a  significant 
fact  that  in  this  well-educated  district,  where  newspapers  are 
read  by  the  poorest,  and  where  well-being  is  the  rule  and 
poverty  a  rare  exception,  the  church  is  empty  on  Sunday  and 
the  priest's  authority  is  nil. 

*'  It  is  delightful  to  witness  the  widespread  well-being  of 
this  highly-favoured  region.  '  There  is  no  poverty  here,'  say 
my  host  and  hostess,  *  and  that  is  why  life  is  so  pleasant. 
True  enough !  Wherever  you  go  you  find  well-dressed  con- 
tented-looking people — no  rags,  no  squalor,  no  pinched 
want.  ...  The  habitual  look  of  content  written  upon  the 
faces  you  meet  is  very  striking.  It  seems  as  if  in  this  land  of 
Goshen  life  were  no  burden,  but  matter  of  satisfaction  only. 
Class  distinctions  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist.  There  are  em- 
ployers and  employed,  masters  and  servants,  of  course  ;  but 
the  line  of  demarcation  is  lightly  drawn,  and  we  find  an  easy 
familiarity  existing  between  them,  wholly  free  from  impolite- 
ness, much  less  vulgarity.  .  .  .  One  is  struck,  too,  by  the  good 
looks,  intelligence,  and  trim  appearance  of  the  children,  who, 
it  is  clear,  are  well  cared  for,  The  houses  have  vines  snd 
sweet  peas  on  the  walls,  flowers  in  the  windows,  and  altogether 
a  look  of  comfort  and  ease  found  nowhere  in  Western  France. 
.  .  .  Here  order  and  cleanliness  prevail,  with  a  diffusion  of 
well-being  hardly  to  be  matched  out  of  America.  .  .  . 


Otf  THOMAS  R.  MALTHU8.  89 

"Dirt  is  rare,  I  might  almost  say  as  unknown,  as  rags.  .  .  . 
Drunkenness  is  also  comparatively,  in  some  places  we  mighf- 
«ay  absolutely,  absent.  As  we  make  further  acquaintance  with 
these  favoured  regions,  we  might  suppose  that  here,  at  least, 
the  dreams  of  the  Utopians  had  come  true,  and  that  poverty, 
^squalor  and  wretchedness  were  banished  for  ever." 

In  the  month  of  August,  1878,  I  had  the  great  advantage  of 
reading,  in  my  capacity  of  Vice-President  of  the  First  Section 
of  the  International  Congress  of  Hygeine  at  Paris,  an  essay  on 
■*'  The  Too  Rapid  Increase  of  Population  as  a  Cause  of  Disease 
.and  Death."  In  the  debate  which  followed.  Dr.  Bertillon, 
the  distinguished  Professor  of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of 
Paris,  who  has  done  so  much  for  social  statistics,  said  that  he 
<50nsidered  that  in  many  parts  of  France  there  was  too  great  a 
■disinclination  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  increase  the  popula- 
tion. In  Brittany,  the  marriages  were  few  but  very  prolific,  and 
the  people  were  very  poor.  The  influence  of  the  priests  was 
paramount  in  that  province,  and  the  mortality,  both  adult  and 
infantile,  great.  There  were  very  few  children  to  a  family  in 
Normandy,  and  the  deatli  rate  was  low  in  that  province.  The 
French  Government  he  said,  appeared  to  be  acting  according 
to  the  plan  advised  by  the  reader  of  the  essay,  since  they  taxed 
persons  with  lar-e  families  as  much  as  those  with  small  ones. 
He  admitted  that  the  size  of  a  family  should  be  regulated  by 
parental  forethought ;  but  thought  that  at  present  French 
population  was  too  stationary. 

Dr.  Lagneau  said,  that  in  France  it  was  the  rich  who  had 
the  smallest  families,  whilst  the  very  poor  often  had  large 
ones.  The  rich  employes  of  Government,  above  all,  were 
noted  for  the  small  size  of  their  families.  In  the  case  of  the 
peasant  vine-growers  of  the  Marne,  many  would  only  have 
one  child,  or  even  none  at  all,  since  these  peasants  found  it 
difficult  to  get  people  to  come  from  the  town  and  aelp  them 
with  their  farms,  and  had  to  do  all  the  work  by  themselves. 
Hence,  female  labour  was  much  in  demand. 

These  facts  will,  doubtless,  afford  to  many  thoughtful  per- 
«ons  a  clear  enough  picture  of  the  remarkable  position  of 
modern  France,  the  only  country  in  Europe  which,  as  yet, 
«eems  to  have  begun  fairly  to  grapple  with  the  giant  question 
of  population 


4C  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ON   THE  CHECKS  TO  POPULATION  IN  ENGLAND, 
SCOTLAND,  AND  IRELAND. 

■R.  MALTHUS,  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  his  second  book^ 
-LTJL  speaks  of  the  checks  to  population  in  England.  He 
points  out  that  a  man  of  liberal  education,  with  an  income 
just  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  associate  with  educated  people, 
must  feel  absolutely  certain  that,  if  he  should  marry  and  have 
a  family,  he  will  be  obliged  to  mix  in  the  society  of  uneducated 
persons.  Such  considerations  make  him  pause.  Sons  of  trades- 
men and  farmers  are  exhorted  not  to  marry  until  settled  ia 
some  business  or  farm,  and  the  labourer  who  earns  two  shil- 
lings a  day,  and  lives  comfortably  while  single,  will  hesitate 
to  divide  that  pittance  among  five  I  The  servants  of  rich 
people  have  so  many  comforts  that  they  naturally  are  averse  to 
sink  down  to  be  the  proprietors  of  some  poor  ale-house. 

Hence,  in  Malthus'  day  (1806),  the  annual  marriages  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  were  as  1  in  123  of  the  population,  a  smaller 
proportion  than  obtained  in  any  European  country  at  that  time^ 
ixcept  Norway  and  Sweden.  Dr.  Short,  writing  in  1750,  pro- 
posed that  single  people  should  be  heavily  taxed  for  the  support 
of  the  married  poor.  Mr.  Malthus  replies  to  this  proposal  of 
the  learned  judge,  that  it  is  not  wise  to  ask  people  to  enter  the 
married  state,  so  long  as  such  crowds  of  children  die  in  infancy 
and  so  much  poverty  exists  among  married  persons.  Those, 
he  adds,  who  live  single  or  marry  late  do  not  diminish  the 
actual  population  by  so  doing.  They  merely  prevent  the  pro- 
portion of  premature  mortality  which  would  otherwise  be  ex- 
cessive. Sir  F.  M.  Eden  mentioned  that  in  some  English 
villages  the  mortality  seemed  to  be  very  low,  viz.  1  in  47,  or 
21  per  1,000.  London,  in  the  beginning  of  this  century,  was, 
it  seems,  by  no  means  so  healthy  as  it  is  at  ])resent.  Accord- 
ing to  a  great  authority.  Dr.  Price,  the  mortality  was  actually 
60  per  1,000  (1  in  20|),  whilst  at  present  it  is  about  23  per 
1,000.  At  the  same  epoch,  the  Manchester  death-rate  was 
1  in  21,  or  35  per  1,000 ;  so  that  Manchester  was  in  those 
days  much  healthier  than  London.  Manufactures,  alas  !  how- 
ever useful,  are  almost  always  mo3t  unwholesome,  because 
they  crowd  hosts  of  people  together  without  comfort,  eCIuoa- 
tion,  or  forethought. 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  411. 

Mr.  Malthus  truly  observes  that  "  there  certainly  seems  to 
be  something  in  great  towns,  and  even  in  moderate  towns^. 
peculiarly  unfavourable  to  the  very  early  stages  of  life."" 
Towns,  he  adds,  are  especially  dangerous  to  the  life  of  children. 
**  In  London,  according  to  former  calculations,  one  half  of  the- 
born  died  under  three  years  of  age  ;  in  Vienna  and  Stockholm 
under  two;  in  Northampton  under  ten.  In  country  villages, 
on  the  contrary,  half  the  born  live  to  thirty,  forty,  forty-six,, 
and  above."  He  adds  that  in  parishes  where  the  mortality  is. 
BO  small  as  1  in  60  or  1  in  75,  half  the  born  would  be  found  to 
have  lived  to  50  or  55.  This  is  precisely  the  case  among  the 
members  of  the  professional  classes  in  England  and  Wales  at. 
this  time,  according  to  Mr.  Charles  Ansell's  oft-quoted  tables. 

Dr.  Short,  it  seems,  estimated  the  birth-rate  of  England  at. 
1  in  28,  or  35  per  1,000.  This  is  just  about  our  present  birth- 
rate. **It  has  hitherto,"  says  our  author,  "  been  usual  with 
political  calculators  to  consider  a  great  proportion  of  births  as- 
the  surest  sign  of  a  vigorous  and  flourishing  state.  It  is  to  be^ 
hoped,  however,  that  this  prejudice  will  not  last  long.  In 
countries  circumstanced  like  America,  or  in  other  countries 
after  any  great  mortality,  a  large  proportion  of  births  may  be- 
a  favourable  symptom  ;  but  in  the  average  state  of  a  well- 
peopled  territory,  there  cannot  well  be  a  worse  sign  than  a. 
large  proportion  of  births,  nor  can  there  well  be  a  better  sign, 
than  a  small  proportion."  This  sentence  ought  to  be  written 
in  letters  of  gold  on  the  public  monuments  of  all  civilised- 
States. 

Sir  Francis  d'lvernois,  who  is  by  no  means  always  so  wise,, 
is  cited  by  Malthus  as  writing  as  follows  : — "  If  the  various 
States  of  Europe  kept  and  published  annually  an  exact  ucjcount. 
of  their  population,  noting  carefully  in  a  second  column  the 
exact  age  at  which  the  children  die,  this  second  column  would 
show  the  relative  merit  of  the  governments  and  the  compara- 
tive happiness  of  their  subjects.  A  single  arithmetical  state- 
ment would  then  perhaps  be  more  conclusive  than  all  the^ 
arguments  that  could  be  adduced." 

Mr.  Malthus  speaks  of  the  great  difficulty  that  existed  in^ 
former  centuries  of  obtaining  reliable  information  as  to  the- 
numbers  of  the  people.  According  to  Davenant,  he  says,  in 
1690,  the  number  of  houses  (in  England  and  Wales)  was- 
1,319,215.  Allowing  five  persons  to  a  house,  this  would  give- 
a  population  of  six  millions  and  a  half  in  1690  ;  and  it  is  quite^ 
incredible  that  from  this  time  to  1710  the  population  should 
have  diminished  nearly  a  million  and  a   half.     So  that  th^ 


-42  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

estimated  population  of  England  and  Wales  in  the  latter  year 
was  Bald  to  have  been  only  five  millions. 


In  chapter  eight  of  his  second  book,  our  author  speaks  of  the 
checks  to  population  in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  At  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  as  now,  Scotland  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
healthiest  countries  in  Europe.  Malthus  mentions  that  in  the 
parish  of  Crossmichael,  in  Kircudbright,  the  mortality  was 
given  as  one  in  98,  and  the  yearly  marriages  as  one  in  192  of 
the  population.  Mr.  Wilkie  stated  that  from  the  accounts  of 
36  parishes,  the  expectation  of  an  infant's  life  appeared  to  be 
as  high  as  40*3.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  figures 
are  all,  more  or  less,  erroneous. 

Mr.  Malthus,  writing  in  1806,  says  that  '*  in  these  parishes 
in  Scotland,  where  manufacturing  has  been  introduced,  which 
offered  employment  to  children  as  soon  as  they  have  reached 
their  sixth  or  seventh  year,  a  habit  of  marrying  early  naturally 
follows  ;  and,  while  the  manufacture  continues  to  flourish  and 
increase,  the  evil  arising  from  it  is  not  very  perceptible  ;  al- 
though humanity  must  confess  with  a  sigh,  that  one  of  the 
reasons  why  it  is  not  so  perceptible  is  that  room  is  made  for 
fresh  families  by  the  unnatural  mortality  which  takes  place 
among  the  children  thus  employed."  Mr.  Van  Houten  gave 
a  most  eloquent  variation  of  this  theme  at  the  meeting  of  the 
International  Congress  of  Medical  Men,  at  Amsterdam,  in 
1879,  when  he  said  that  children  should  never  be  employed 
in  industry  :  — "  The  child  belongs  to  himself  and  to  play. 
How  many  lives  of  children,"  he  continued,  "  do  we  not  wear 
out  in  our  clothes,  or  smoke  away  in  our  cigars  !  " 

Another  writer  in  Malthus'  day  is  astonished  at  the  rapid 
i  crease  of  population  in  parts  of  Scotland,  in  spite  of  a  con- 
-siderable  emigration  to  America  in  1770,  and  a  large  drain 
during  the  war.  In  the  parish  of  Duthie  (Elgin)  the  annual 
births  were  yV  ^^  *^®  whole  population,  the  marriages  one  in 
55  Each  marriage  in  this  place  was  stated  to  yield  seven 
•children,  and  yet  the  population  had  decreased;  The  women 
-of  Scotland  appeared  in  those  days  to  have  been  very  prolific. 
In  the  parish  of  Nigg  (Kincardine)  there  were  57  families 
^with  405  children — ;>.,  nearly  7J  each.  Compare  this  with 
modern  France,  with  an  average  of  three  children  to  a  mar- 
riage. In  Scotland  at  present  the  number  of  children  to  a 
marriage  is  about  four. 

The  illustrious  clergyman,  Dr.  Chalmers,  whose  centenary 
-of  birth  was  celebrated  on  March  7,  1880,  was  always  greatly 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  43 

^averse  to  the  introduction  of  the  English  poor-law  system 
into  Scotland.  Mr.  Malthus  points  out  that  before  his  day 
"*'  the  poor  of  Scotland  were  in  general  supported  by  voluntary 
■contributions,  distributed  under  the  inspection  of  the  minister 
of  the  parish  ;  and  it  appears,  upon  the  whole,  that  they  have 
been  conducted  with  considerable  judgment.  Having  no  claim 
by  right  to  relief,  and  the  supplies,  from  the  mode  of  their 
•collection,  being  necessarily  uncertain,  and  never  abundant, 
ihe  poor  have  considered  them  merely  as  a  last  resource  in 
•cases  of  extreme  distress,  and  not  as  a  fund  on  which  they 
might  rely."  In  the  account  of  Caerlaverock,  in  answer  to 
the  question,  "  How  ought  the  poor  to  be  supplied  ?"  it  is 
most  judiciously  remarked,  '*  that  distress  and  poverty  multiply 
in  proportion  to  the  funds  created  to  relieve  them ;  that  the 
measures  of  charity  ought  to  remain  invisible  till  the  moment 
•when  it  is  necessary  that  they  should  be  distributed  ;  that  in 
the  country  parishes  of  Scotland  in  general  small  occasional 
voluntary  collections  are  sufficient ;  that  the  legislature  has  no 
■occasion  to  interfere  to  augment  the  stream,  which  already  is 
•copious  enough  ;  in  fine,  that  the  establishment  of  a  poor  rate 
would  not  only  be  unnecessary,  but  hurtful,  as  it  would  tend  to 
■oppress  the  land-holder  without  bringing  relief  to  the  poor." 

Chalmers  preached  these  doctrines  enthusiastically  during 
iiis  long  and  eventful  life,  and  his  conduct  in  moralising  that 
part  of  the  city  of  Glasgow  where  he  was  pastor  will  ever  be 
Teme inhered  with  gratitude  by  all  lovers  of  human  happiness. 

The  Poor-law  Act  of  1834,  which  was  carried  out  in  accord- 
^ance  with  the  views  of  Malthus  and  Chalmers,  unfortunately 
placed  no  effectual  check  on  the  quantity  of  outdoor  relief,  and 
hence  the  number  of  outdoor  paupers  in  England  is  often 
•as  high  as  one-eighth  of  all  reHeved.  This  demoralises  and 
pauperises  the  English  poor  to  an  alarming  extent.  This  Poor- 
law  was  introduced,  with  its  worst  features  exaggerated,  into 
;Scotland  in  1845,  when  a  brand-new  Poor-law  was  brought  in 
"with  great  facilities  for  outdoor  relief.  Well  might  Chalmers 
^warn  his  countrymen  against  such  a  Poor-law.  It  has  already 
pauperised  the  most  interesting  peasantry  in  the  British 
Islands  to  such  a  degree  that,  whilst  in  England  one  out  of 
'«very  twenty  persons  is  often  a  pauper,  in  Scotland  already 
^one  in  twenty-three  are  so,  whereas  in  Ireland,  with  a  far  lower 
.standard  of  comfort,  but  a  much  more  stringent  Poor-law,  only 
one  in  seventy-four  persons  are  in  receipt  of  any  parish  relief, 

"The  endemic  and  epidemic  diseases  in  Scotland,"  says 
Malthus,  "  fall  chiefly,  as  is  usual,  on  the  poor.     .     .     .     To 


44  THE  ltk;:  anh  \V!:!tinos 

the  same  causes,  in  a  grreat  measure,  are  attributed  the  rlieu- 
matisms  which  are  general  and  the  consumptions  whicli  ar*^ 
frequent  among  the  common  people.  Wherever,  in  any  j  lace;, 
from  particular  circumstances,  the  condition  of  the  p  or  has 
been  rendered  worse,  these  disorders,  particularly  the  latter^ 
have  been  observed  to  prevail  with  greater  foice."  In  those- 
observations  Mr.  Malthus  lays  the  very  foundation  of  the 
science  of  health.  Health  in  Europe,  he  shows,  is  incom-^ 
patible  with  high  birth-rates,  which  cause  over-crowding, 
consumption,  and  death. 

Scotland,  says  Malthus,  writing  in  1806,  is  certainly  still 
over-peopled,  but  not  so  much  as  it  was  a  century  ago,  when 
it  contained  fewer  inhabitants.  Scotland  in  1801,  had  1,608,420 
inhabitants,  and  in  1871,  3,360,018,  so  that  its  time  of  doublinu' 
has  been  nearly  seventy  years,  or  much  slower  than  that  of 
England  and  Wales. 

With  regard  to  Ireland,  there  is  only  one  short  paragraph  in 
Malthus'    tentli  Chapter  of  Ijook   Second  upon  that  country. 
We  give  it  in  its  entii-ety  : — ''The  details  of  the  population  of 
Ireland  are  but  little  known.     I  shall  onl}^  observe,  therefore,, 
that  the  extended  use  of  potatoes  has  allowed  of  a  very  rapid 
increase  of  it  during  the  last  century  (18th).     But  the  cheap- 
ness of  this  nourishing  root,  and  the  small  piece  of  ground; 
which,  under  this  cultivation,   will  in  average  years  produce 
the  food  for  a  family,  joined  to  the  ignorance  and  barbarism  oi 
the  people,  which  have  prompted  thetn  to  follow  their  inclina- 
tions with  no  other  prospect  than  an  immediate  bare  subsistence,. 
have  encouraged  marriage  to  such   a  degree  that    the  popula- 
tion is  pushed  much  beyond  the  industry  and  piesent  re^^ources- 
of  the  country  ;  and  the  consequence  naturally  is  that  the  lower 
classes  of  people  are  in  the  most  depressed  and  miserable  state. 
The  checks  to    the  population  are,  of  course,   chiefly  of   the 
positive  kind,  and  arise  from  the  diseases  occasioned  by  squalid 
poverty,  by  damp  and  wretched  cabins^  by  bad  and  insufficient 
clothing,  bj'-  the  filth  of  their  persons,  and  occasional  Avaut." 

Malthus  here  foresaw  the  famine  of  1848,  which,  aided  by 
emigration,  reduced  the  Irish  population  from  8,175,124  im 
1841  to  6,552,385  in  1851.  Doubtless,  as  shown  by  Mr.  J. 
S.  Mill,  Professor  Laveleye,  and  other  subsequent  writers,  the- 
miserable  condition  of  the  Irish  peasant  is  due  mainly  to  the- 
intolerable  feudal  laws  of  land  tenure,  which  have  been  sO' 
violently  put  an  end  to  in  our  happiest  of  modern  Europear 
States,  France. 


OF  TLI03US  U.  BIALTUUS.  46 


CHAPTER  VII. 


DETACHED       ESSAYS. 


JN  Volume  IT.  of  the  *'  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Popula- 
tion "  (edition  ISOG)  there  are  to  be  found  a  number  of 
most  interesting  remarks  on  the  population  question.  Book  II. 
contains  chapters  on  the  Fruitfuhiess  of  ]\larriage,  on  the 
Effects  of  Epidemics,  on  Registers  of  Births,  Deaths,  and  Mar- 
riages, and  on  the  General  Deductions  from  the  Preceding 
View  of  Society. 

"  There  is  no  absolutely  necessary  connection,"  saj^s  Malthus, 
•**  between  the  average  age  of  marriage  and  the  average  age  of 
-death.  In  a  country  the  resources  of  which  will  allow  of  a 
rapid  increase  of  population,  the  expectation  of  life  or  the 
average  age  of  death  may  be  extremely  high,  and  yet  the  age 
■of  marriage  may  be  very  early :  and  the  marriages,  then,  com- 
pared with  the  contemporary  d<*laths  of  the  registers,  would, 
«ven  after  the  correction  for  second  and  third  marriages,  be 
very  much  too  great  to  represent  the  true  proportion  of  the 
born  living  to  marry." 

At  the  commencement  of  th"s  century,  it  appears  from  the 
transactions  of  the  Society  of  Philadelphia,  in  a  paper  by  Mr. 
Barton,  entitled  *'  Observations  on  the  Probability  of  Life  in 
the  United  States,"  that  the  proportion  of  marriages  to  births 
was  as  1  to  4 J.  As,  however,  this  proportion  was  taken  princi- 
pally from  towns,  it  is  probable,  according  to  Malthus,  that 
the  births  given  were  too  low,  and  that  as  many  as  five  might 
be  taken  as  an  average  for  town  and  country.  According  to 
this  author,  the  mortality  at  that  date  was  about  1  in  45  ;  and, 
if  the  population  doubled  in  twenty- five  years,  the  births 
would  be  1  in  20  (50  per  1,000). 

In  England  at  the  commencement  of  this  century  the  pro- 
portion of  marriages  to  births  appears  to  have  been  about  100 
to  350.  But  in  those  days  Mr.  Malthus  calculated  that  the 
annual  marriages  to  the  births  in  England  amounted  to  about 
1  in  4.  In  the  East-end  of  London  at  the  present  day  the 
writer  has  found  that  the  average  number  of  children  to  % 
marriage  among  the  women  of  the  poorer  classes  is  about  7,. 
whilst  the   annual   births   in  England  and  Wales  to  the  mar- 


46 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 


riages  are  nearly  as  4^  to  1.  In  France  the  annual  marriage* 
are  to  the  births  as  1  to  3. 

A  writer  in  Mr.  Malthus's  day,  Crome,  observes  that  when, 
the  marriages  of  a  country  yield  less  than  four  births,  the- 
population  is  in  a  very  precarious  state  ;  and  he  estimates  the 
prolificness  of  marriages  by  the  proportion  of  yearly  births  to- 
maniages.  If  this  had  been  true,  the  population  of  many 
countries  of  Europe  would  be  at  present  in  a  precarious  state, 
since  in  many,  as  in  France,  the  projjortion  of  marriages  to 
births  is  much  under  4  to  1. 

**  The  preventive  check,"  says  Malthus,  **is  perhaps  best 
measured  by  the  smallness  of  the  proportion  of  yearly  births 
to  the  whole  population.  The  projDortion  of  yearly  marriages 
to  the  population  is  only  a  just  criterion  in  countries  simi- 
larly circumstanced,  but  is  incorrect  where  there  is  a  differ- 
ence in  the  prolificness  of  marriages  or  in  the  proportion  of 
the  population  under  the  age  of  puberty,  and  in  the  rate  of 
increase.  If  all  the  marriages  of  a  country,  be  they  few  or 
many,  take  place  young,  and  be  consequently  prolific,  it  is 
evident  that  to  produce  the  same  proportion  of  births  a  smaller 
number  of  marriages  will  be  necessary,  or,  with  the  same  pro- 
portion of  marriages,  a  greater  proportion  will  be  produced." 

Curiously  enough,  in  his  day  Malthus  mentions  that  in 
France  both  the  births  and  deaths  were  greater  than  they  were 
in  Sweden,  although  the  proportion  of  marriages  was  then 
rather  less  in  France.  "  And  when,"  he  adds,  "  in  two 
countries  compared,  one  of  them  has  a  much  greater  part  of 
its  population  under  the  age  of  puberty  than  the  other,  it  i& 
evident  that  any  general  proportion  of  the  yearly  marriages  to 
the  whole  population  will  not  imply  the  same  operation  of  the 
:preventive  check  among  those  of  a  marriageable  age." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  in  the  second  volume- 
of  Malthus'  essay  is  that  which  relates  to  the  rapid  increase 
of  births  after  the  j^lagues.  According  to  Sussmilch,  very  few 
countries  had  hitherto  been  exempt  from  plagues,  which  every 
now  and  then  would  sweep  away  one-fourth  or  one-third  cf 
their  population.  That  writer  calculated  that  above  one-third 
of  the  people  in  Prussia  were  destroyed  by  the  plague  of  1711 ; 
And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  great  diminution  of  the  popula- 
tion, it  appeared  that  the  number  of  marriages  in  1711  wa& 
very  nearly  double  the  average  of  the  six  years  preceding  th& 
plague.  Hence  the  proportion  of  births  to  deaths  was  pro- 
digious— 320  to  100 — an  excess  of  births  as  great,  perhaps,  as 
has  ever  been  known  in  America.     In  the  fuur  years  succeed- 


OP  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  ^T 

ing  the  plague  the  births  were  to  the  deaths  in  the  proportion- 
of  above  22  to  10,  which,  calculating  the  mortality  at  1  in  36,. 
would  double  the  population  in  21  years. 

"  In  contemplating,"  says  Malthus,  ''  the  plagues  and  sickly 
seasons  which  occur  in  the  tables  of  Sussmilch,  after  a  period 
of  rapid  increase,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the 
idea  that  the  number  of  inhabitants  had,  in  these  instances, 
exceeded  the  food  and  accommodation  necessary  to  preserve 
them  in  health.  The  mass  of  the  people  would,  upon  this 
supposition,  be  obliged  to  live  worse,  and  a  greater  number  of 
them  would  be  crowded  together  in  one  house  ;  and  these 
natural  causes  would  evidently  contribute  to  increase  sickness, 
even  though  the  country,  absolutely  considered,  might  not  be 
crowded  and  populous.  In  a  country  even  thinly  inhabited,. 
if  an  increase  of  population  takes  place  before  more  food  is 
raised,  and  more  houses  are  built,  the  inhabitants  must  be 
distressed  for  room  and  subsistence." 

In  Chapter  xi.  we  have  some  general  deductions  from  the 
preceding  views  of  Society.  Mr.  Malthus  there  shows  that 
the  main  cause  of  the  slow  growth  of  populations  in  Europe  ia 
insufficiency  of  supplies  of  food.  No  settlements,  says  our' 
author,  could  have  been  worse  managed  than  those  of  Spain,. 
Mexico,  Peru  and  Quito.  Yet,  under  all  their  difficulties,, 
these  colonies  made  a  quick  increase  in  population.  But  the 
English  North  American  Colonies  added  to  the  quantity  of  rich 
land  they  held  in  common  with  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
settlements,  a  greater  degree  of  liberty  and  equality.  In  Penn- 
sylvania there  was  no  right  of  primogeniture  in  Malthus'  time  : 
and  in  the  provinces  of  New  England  the  eldest  son  had  only 
a  double  share.  The  consequence  of  these  favourable  circum- 
stances united  was  a  rapidity  of  increase  almost  without  a 
parallel  in  history.  Throughout  all  the  northern  provinces 
the  population  was  found  to  double  itself  in  25  years.  The 
original  number  of  persons  which  had  settled  in  the  four  pro- 
vinces of  New  England,  in  1643,  was  21,200.  Afterwards  it 
was  calculated  that  more  left  them  than  went  to  them.  In  the 
year  1760  they  were  increased  to  half  a  million.  They  had, 
therefore,  all  along,  doubled  their  numbers  in  25  years.  In. 
New  Jersey  the  period  of  doubling  appeared  to  be  22  years ; 
and  in  Khode  island  still  less.  In  the  back  settlements,  where 
the  inhabitants  apj^lied  themselves  solely  to  agriculture,  and 
luy^ury  was  not  known,  they  were  supposed  to  double  their 
numbers  in  15  years. 

The  population  of  the  United  States,  says  Malthus,  writing 


-48  THE  \IFE  AND  WRITINGS 

in  1806,  according  to  the  last  Census,  is  11,000,000.  **  W© 
liave  no  reason  to  believe  that  Great  Britain  is  less  populous 
-at  present,  for  the  emigration  of  the  small  parent  stock  which 
'  produced  these  numbers.  On  the  contrary,  a  certain  amount 
of  emigration  is  known  to  be  favourable  to  the  population  of 
the  mother  country.  Whatever  was  the  original  number  of 
British  emigrants  which  increased  so  fast  in  North  America, 
let  us  ask.  Why  does  not  an  equal  number  produce  an  equal 
increase  in  the  same  time  in  Great  Britain  ?  The  obvious 
reason  is  the  want  of  food  :  and  that  this  want  is  the  most  effi- 
•cient  cause  of  the  three  immediate  checks  to  population  which 
have  been  observed  to  prevail  in  all  societies,  is  evident,  from 
the  rapidity  with  which  even  old  States  recover  the  desolations 
of  war,  pestilence,  famine,  and  the  convulsions  of  nature.  They 
-are  then  for  a  short  time  placed  a  little  in  the  condition  of  new 
oolonies,  and  the  effect  is  always  answerable  to  what  might  be 
-expected.  If  the  industry  of  the  inhabitants  be  not  destroyed, 
^subsistence  will  soon  increase  beyond  the  wants  of  the  reduced 
numbers;  and  the  invariable  consequence  will  be,  that  popu- 
lation, which  before  perhaps  was  nearly  stationary,  will  begin 
immediately  to  increase,  and  will  continue  its  progress  till  the 
:foi.'mer  population  is  recovered." 

The  decennial  censuses  of  the  United  States  during  thii 
oenturv  have  been  as  follows,  in  round  numbers  : — In  1800, 
5,305,000  ;  in  1810,  7,239,000  :  in  1820.  9,638.000  ;  in  1830, 
12.866,000;  in  1840,  17,069,000;  in  1850,  23,193,000;  in 
1860,  31,413,000;  in  1870,  38,558,000.  If  we  compare  the 
oypherof  1830— 12,866,000— with  that  of  1800—5,305,000 
— we  see  that  the  population  of  the  States  far  more  than 
•doubled  itself  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  century,  making 
all  due  allowance  for  immigration,  by  the  simple  process  of 
fecundity  inherent  in  the  human  species. 

Mr.  Mai  thus  mentions  (chapter  XI.  p.  67),  that  in  New 
.Jersey  "  the  proportion  of  births  to  deaths,  in  an  average 
of  seven  years,  ending  1743,  was  300  to  100.  In  England 
-and  France,  he  says,  at  that  time  the  highest  average  propor- 
tion could  not  be  reckoned  at  more  than  120  to  100."  At  this 
-date,  1880,  the  proportion  of  births  to  deaths  in  France  is  as 
111  is  to  100,  and  in  England  it  is  as  152  is  to  100,  whereas 
in  Dublin  the  deaths  exceed  the  births.  In  New  Zealand  the 
births  are  to  the  deaths  as  340  is  to  100.  There  is  nothing, 
lie  says,  the  least  mysterious  in  this.  '*  The  passion  between 
•the  sexes  has  appeared  in  every  age  to  be  so  nearly  the  same, 
that  it  may  be  considered,  in  algebraic  language,  as  a  given 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  49 

quantity.  The  great  law  of  necessity  wbich  prevents  popu- 
lation from  increasing  in  any  country  beyond  the  food  which 
it  can  either  produce  or  acquire,  is  a  law  so  open  to  our  view, 
•so  obvious  and  evident  to  our  understandings,  that  we  cannot 
for  a  moment  doubt  it.  The  different  modes  which  natine 
takes  to  repress  a  redundant  population,  do  not  appear,  indeed, 
to  us  so  certain  and  regular ;  but  though  we  cannot  always 
predict  the  mode,  we  may  with  certainty  predict  the  fact.  If 
the  proportion  of  the  births  to  the  deaths  for  a  few  yeaf-s 
indicates  an  increase  of  numbers  much  beyond  the  propor- 
tional increased  or  acquired  food  of  the  country,  we  may  be 
perfectly  certain  that  unless  an  emigration  take  place  the 
deaths  will  shortly  exceed  the  births,  and  that  the  increase 
that  has  been  observed  for  a  tew  years  cannot  be  the  real 
average  increase  of  the  population  of  that  country.  If  there 
were  no  other  depopulating  causes,  and  if  the  preventive 
oheck  did  not  act  very  strongly',  every  country  would  with- 
out doubt  be  subject  to  periodical  plagues  and  famines." 

This  is  a  well-known  passage,  and  shows  the  genius  of  the 
writer  as  well  as  any  in  his  work.  How  immensely  superior 
is  his  clear  enunciation  of  the  attraction  between  the  sexes 
when  compared  with  the  strange  speculatious  of  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  of  late  years,  about  the  supposed  gradual  decay  of  that 
•attraction  in  proportion  to  the  alleged  increase  in  the  weight 
of  the  human  brain.  It  is  quite  deplorable  to  see  what 
ingenuity  has  been  exercised  by  latter-day  philosophers  to 
get  over  the  plain  and  inevitable  conclusions  of  Malthus  and  his 
oommon-sense  school!  The  struggle  for  existence  and  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  has  been  put  forward  as  a  plea  for  allowing 
over-population  to  grind  the  masses  in  constant  misery,  and 
the  delusive  ideal  of  the  equation  of  mouths  to  food  in  the 
course  of  ages  by  a  mere  fanciful  tendency  of  organisms  to 
become  more  perfect,  without  the  exercise  of  volition,  are  the 
latest  struggles  of  the  ostrich  to  burrow  with  his  head  in  the 
€and  in  order  to  avoid  the  sight  of  the  inevitable. 

"  The  only  criterion,"  says  Malthus,  "  of  a  real  and  per- 
manent increase  in  the  population  of  any  country  is  the  increase 
in  the  means  of  subsistence.  But  even  this  criterion  is  subject 
to  slight  variations,  which,  however,  are  completely  open  to 
observation.  In  some  countries  population  seems  to  have 
been  forced :  that  is  the  people  have  been  habituated  by 
degrees  to  live  almost  upon  the  smallest  possible  quantity  of 
food.  There  must  have  been  periods  in  such  countries  wlien 
population  increased  permanently  without  an  increase  in  the 


50  THE  LIFE  AND  WUITIKGS 

111  Bans  of  subsistence.  China,  India,  and  the  countries  pos- 
se>serl  by  the  Bedoween  Arabs,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  former 
]);u-t  of  this  woi-k,  ap[)ear  to  answer  to  this  description.  The 
average  produce  of  these  countries  seems  to  be  but  barely 
snthcient  to  support  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants,  and,  of  course,, 
any  deficiency  from  the  badness  of  the  seasons  must  be  fatal. 
Nations  in  this  state  must  necessarily  be  suhject  to  famines." 

Almr.st  all  the  histories  of  epidemics  which  we  have- 
read  tend  to  confirm  the  supposition  that  they  are  greatly 
caused  by  that  over-population  which,  as  in  Dublin  in  1880,. 
leads  to  over-crowded  houses  filled  by  ill-fed  and  ill-clad 
inmates.  Dr.  Short,  an  author  of  the  last  century,  shows  in 
his  work  (Air,  Seasons,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  206),  that  a  very  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  epidemic  years  either  have  followed 
or  were  accompanied  by  seasons  of  dearth  and  bad  food.  In 
other  places  he  also  mentions  great  plagues  as  diminishing 
particularly  the  numbers  of  the  poorest  classes;  and  in  speak- 
ing of  different  diseases,  he  observes,  that  those  which  are 
occasioned  by  bad  and  unwholesome  food  generally  last  the- 
longest. 

"  We  know  (says  our  author)  from  constant  experience  that 
fevers  are  generated  in  our  jails,  our  manufactories,  our 
crowded  workhouses,  and  in  the  narrow  and  close  streets  of 
our  large  towns,  all  which  situations  appear  to  be  similar  in 
their  effects  to  scpialid  poAerty,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that 
causes  of  this  kind,  aggravated  in  degree,  contributed  to  the 
production  aud  prevalence  of  those  great  and  wasting  plngues 
formerly  so  common  in  Europe,  but  which  now,  from  tlie 
mitigation  of  their  causes,  are  everywhere  considei-ably 
abated,  and  in  many  places  appear  to  be  completely  ex- 
tirpated. 

''  Of  the  other  gj-eat  scourge  of  mankind  — famine — it  may 
be  observed  that  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the 
increase  of  population  should  absoluteh^  produce  one.  This 
increase,  though  rapid,  is  necessarily  gradual,  and  as  the 
luiman  frame  cannot  be  supported,  even  for  a  very  sliort  time, 
without  food,  it  is  evident  that  no  more  human  beings  can 
grow  up  than  there  is  provision  to  maintain.  But  though  the 
principle  of  population  cannot  absolutely  produce  a  famine,  it 
prepares  the  way  f^-r  one  in  the  most  complete  manner,  and 
by  obliging  all  the  lower  classes  of  people  to  subsist  merely 
on  the  smallest  quantity'-  of  food  that  will  support  life,  tuins 
even  a  slight  deficiency  from  the  failure  of  the  seasons  into  a 
severe  dearth;  and  may  be  fairly  said,  therefoi'e,  to  be  one  of" 


OF  THOMAS  R.  3IALTnUS.  51 

the  principal  causes  of  famine.  Among  the  signs  of  an 
approaching  dearth.  Dr.  Short  mentions  one  or  more  years  of 
luxuriant  crops  together,  and  this  observation  is  probably  just, 
as  we  know  that  the  general  effect  of  years  of  cheapness  and 
abundance  is  to  dispose  a  greater  number  of  persons  to  marry, 
and  under  such  circumstances  the  return  to  a  year  which  gives 
only  an  average  crop  might  produce  a  scarcity." 

Much  has  been  lately  spoken  in  professional  assemblies 
about  recent  epidemics  of  small  pox.  It  is  curious  to  hear 
what  our  author,  writing  in  1806,  or  seven  years  after  the 
discovery  of  Edward  Jenner,  has  to  say.  "  The  small  pox 
(says  Malthus,  book  2,  ch.  xi.,  p.  61),  which  at  present  may 
be  considered  as  the  most  prevalent  and  fatal  epidemic  in 
Europe,  is  of  all  others,  perhaps,  the  most  difficult  to  account 
for,  though  the  periods  of  its  return  are  in  many  places 
regular.  Dr.  Short  (Air,  Seasons,  vol.  ii.,  p.  441),  observes 
that  from  the  history  of  this  disorder  it  seems  to  have  very 
little  dependence  an  present  constitutions  of  the  weather  of 
seasons,  and  that  it  ai)pears  epidemically  at  all  times  and  in 
all  states  of  the  air,  though  not  so  frequently  in  hard  frost. 
We  know  of  no  instances,  I  believe,  of  its  being  clearly 
generated  under  any  circumstances  of  situation.  I  do  not 
mean,  therefore,  to  insinuate  that  poverty  and  crowded  houses 
ever  absolutelj^  produced  it ;  but  I  may  be  allowed  to  remark 
that  in  those  places  where  its  returns  are  regular,  and  its 
ravages  among  children,  particularly  among  those  of  the  lowest 
class,  are  considerable,  it  necessarily  follows  that  these  cir- 
cumstances, in  a  gieater  degree  than  usual,  must  always 
precede  and  accompany  its  appearance ;  that  is,  from  the  time 
of  its  last  visit,  the  average  number  of  children  will  be  iii- 
creasing,  the  people  will,  in  con.^equence,  be  growing  poorer, 
and  the  houses  will  be  more  crowded  till  another  visit  removes 
this  superabundant  population." 

Other  circumstances  being  equal,  it  may  be  affirmed  that 
countries  are  populous  according  to  the  quantity  of  human 
food  which  they  produce  or  can  acquire ;  and  hapi^y,  accord- 
ing to  the  liberality  with  which  the  food  is  divided,  or  the 
quantity  which  a  day's  labor  will  purchase.  Compare,  on 
this  standard  of  our  author,  the  condition  of  an  agricultural 
laborer  in  England,  with  beefsteak  at  one  shilling  the  pound 
in  London,  with  that  of  Dunedin,  where,  as  we  write,  it  is  at 
fourpence  the  pound,  and  wages  are  at  least  two  and  a  half 
those  in  England  for  that  class.  "  Corn  countries  are  more 
populous    than    pasture   countries,   and   rice   countries   more 


52  THE  LIFE  AND   WRITINGS 

populous  than  corn  countries.  But  their  happiness  does  not 
depend  either  upon  their  being  thinly  or  full}'  inhabited,  upon 
their  poveity  or  their  riches,  their  youth  or  their  age  ;  but  on 
the  proportion  which  the  population  and  the  food  bear  to  each 
other.  This  proportion  is  generally  the  most  favorable  in  new 
colonies,  where  the  knowledge  and  industry  of  an  old  state 
operate  on  the  fertile  unappropriated  land  of  a  new  one.  In 
other  cases  the  youth  or  the  age  of  a  state  is  not,  in  this 
respect,  of  great  importance.  It  is  probable  that  the  food  of 
Great  Britain  is  divided  in  more  liberal  shares  to  its  inha- 
bitants at  the  present  period  than  it  was  two  thousand,  thr^*» 
thousand,  or  four  thousand  years  ago." 

This  passage  from  Malthus  shows  that  he  at  least  does  not 
believe  in  the  view  sometimes  attributed  to  him  that  the 
position  of  civilised  societ}^  is  tending  continually  to  become 
more  and  more  unbearable  from  pressure  of  population  on 
food.  Malthus  saw  quite  clearly  that  the  prevention  of  a 
rapid  birth-rate  was  more  and  more  practised  by  nations  in 
proportion  as  they  became  better  educated,  and  he  therefore 
did  not  at  all  take  the  pessimistic  aspect  of  human  society  that 
many  believe. 

"In  a  country  never  to  be  oveirun  by  a  people  more 
advanced  in  arts,  but  left  to  its  own  natural  progress  in  civili- 
sation ;  from  the  time  when  its  produce  might  be  considered 
as  a  unit,  to  the  time  that  it  might  be  considered  as  a  million, 
during  the  lapse  of  many  thousand  years,  there  would  not  be 
a  single  period  when  the  mass  of  the  people  could  be  said  to 
be  free  from  distress,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  from  want 
of  food.  In  every  state  in  Europe,  since  we  have  first  had 
accounts  of  it,  millions  and  millions  of  human  existences  have 
been  suppressed  from  this  simple  cause,  though  perhaps  in 
some  of  these  states  an  absolute  famine  may  never  have  been 
known." 

These  expressions  of  Mr.  Malthus  are  entirely  opposed  to 
the  idea  that  he  held  that  the  future  of  society  was  likely  to  be 
less  bright  than  that  of  the  past  Still  there  is  a  certain  sad- 
ness in  the  following  sentence,  w^hich  is  the  real  secret  of  the 
unpopularity  of  the  great  discoverer's  doctrine.  In  page  73, 
book  ii.,  chap,  xi.,  he  says  :  *'  Population  invariably  increases 
when  the  means  of  subsistence  increase,  unless  prevented  by 
powerful  and  obvious  checks.  .  .  Famine  seems  to  be  the 
last,  the  most  dreadful  resource  of  nature.  The  power  of 
population  is  so  superior  to  the  power  in  the  earth  to  produce 
subsistence   for  man,  tliat  unless  arrested  by  the  preventive 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  53 

check,  premature  death  must  in  some  shape  or  other  visit  the 
human  race.  The  vices  of  mankind  are  active  and  able 
ministers  of  depopulation.  They  are  the  precursors  in  the 
great  army  of  destruction,  and  often  finish  the  dreadful  work 
themselves.  But  should  they  fail  in  this  work  of  extermina- 
tion, sickly  seasons,  epidemics,  pestilence,  and  plague,  advance 
in  terrific  array,  and  sweep  off  their  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands.  Should  success  be  still  incomplete,  gigantic,  in^ 
evitable  famine  stalks  in  the  rear,  and  at  one  mighty  blow 
levels  the  population  with  the  food  uf  the  world." 

In  Mr.  Malthus's  edition  of  180G,  the  third  book  contains 
several  essays  on  the  different  systems  or  expedients  which 
have  been  proposed  or  have  prevailed  in  society,  as  they  affect 
the  evils  arising  from  the  principle  of  population.  In  chapter  I., 
p.  77,  be  treats  of  systems  of  equality  proposed  by  Wallace, 
and  the  illustrious  Condorcet.  Mr.  Wallace,  whose  name  has 
been  adverted  to  by  many  writers  as  one  of  those  who  partly 
saw  the  importance  of  the  tendency  of  mankind  to  increase 
more  rapidly  than  food,  did  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  any 
difficulty  would  arise  from  this  cause  till  the  whole  earth  had 
been  cultivated  as  a  garden,  and  was  incapable  of  any  further 
increase  of  produce.  Mr.  Malthus  remarks  upon  this  idea  of 
Mr.  Wallace,  that  "  at  every  period  during  the  period  of  cul- 
tivation, from  the  present  moment  to  the  time  when  the  whole 
earth  was  become  like  a  garden,  the  distress  for  want  of  food 
would  be  constantly  pressing  on  all  mankind  if  they  were 
equal.  Though  the  produce  of  the  earth  would  be  increasing 
every  year,  population  would  be  tending  to  increase  much 
faster,  and  the  redundancy  must  necessarily  be  checked  by 
the  periodical  action  of  moral  restraint,  vice,  or  misery." 

M.  Condorcet's  Esqiiisse  (Tun  tableau  hisiorique  des  progres  de 
V esprit  hiimain  was  written,  it  is  said,  under  the  pressure  of 
that  cruel  proscription  which  terminated  in  his  death  during 
the  French  Kevolutiou,  and  the  posthumous  publication  is  only 
a  sketch  of  a  much  larger  work  which  he  proposed  to  write. 
By  the  application  of  calculations  to  the  ^probabilities  of  life 
and  the  interest  of  money,  Condorcet  proposed  that  a  fund 
should  be  established,  which  should  assure  to  the  old  an  assist- 
ance produced  in  part  by  their  own  former  savings,  and  in 
part  by  the  savings  of  individuals,  who  in  making  the  same 
sacrifice  die  before  they  reap  the  benefit  of  it.  These  establish- 
ments, he  observes,  might  be  made  in  the  name  and  under 
the  protection  of  the  state.  Mr.  Blackley  brought  forward  a 
somewhat  similar  proposal  in  1880.     Condorcet  adds  that  by 


54:  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

the  just  application  of  such  calculations,  means  might  be  found 
of  more  completely  preserving  a  slate  of  equality,  by  prevent- 
ing credit  from  being  the  exclusive  privilege  of  large  fortunes, 
and  yet  giving  it  a  basis  equall}'  solid,  and  by  rendering  the 
industry  and  activity  of  commerce  let^s  dependent  on  great 
capitalists. 

Mr.  Malthus  criticises  the  schemes  of  Condorcet  as  follows: — 
"  Supposing  for  a  moment  that  they  would  give  no  check  to 
production,  the  greatest  difficulty  remains  behind.  Were 
every  man  sure  of  a  comfortable  provision  for  a  family,  almost 
every  man  would  have  one ;  and  were  the  rising  generation 
free  from  the  killing  frost  of  misery,  population  must  increase 
with  unusual  rapidity."  And  Condorcet  himself  saw  this,  for 
he  says  :  "  But  in  this  progress  of  industry  and  happiness, 
each  generation  will  be  called  to  more  extended  enjoyments, 
and,  in  consequence,  by  the  physical  constitution  of  the  human 
frame,  to  an  increase  in  the  number  of  individuals.  Must  not 
there  arise  a  period  when  these  laws,  equnlly  necessary,  shall 
counteract  each  other  ;  when  the  increase  of  the  number  of 
men  surpassing  their  means  of  subsistence,  the  necessary  result 
must  be,  either  a  continual  diminution  of  happiness  and  popu- 
lation—  a  movement  truly  retrograde — or,  at  least,  a  kind  of 
oscillation  between  good  and  evil.  Shall  we  ever  arrive  at 
such  a  period?  It  is  equally  impossible  to  pronounce  for  or 
against  the  future  realization  of  an  event,  which  cannot  take 
place  but  at  an  era  when  the  human  race  will  have  attained 
improvements  of  which  we  can  at  j^resent  scarcely  form  a 
conception." 

To  this  ]Mr.  Malthus  replies  that  the  only  point  in  which  he 
differs  from  Condorcet  in  the  paragraph  just  cited  is  with 
regard  to  the  period  when  it  may  be  applied  to  the  human 
race.  Condorcet  thought  that  his  age  of  iiun  would  not  come 
until  a  vevy  distant  era.  Our  author  remarks,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  period  when  the  number  of  men  surpassed  their  sub- 
sistence had  long  ago  arrived  :  and  that  this  constantly  sub- 
sisting cause  of  periodical  misery  has  existed  ever  since  we 
have  any  history  of  mankind,  and  continues  to  exist  at  the 
present  moment. 

*'  M.  Condorcet  (saj's  Malthus)  however  goes  on  to  say  that 
should  the  period  which  he  conceives  to  be  so  distant  ever 
arrive,  the  human  race,  and  the  advocates  of  the  perfectibility 
of  man,  need  not  be  alarmed  at  it.  He  then  proceeds  to 
remove  the  diffi.culty  in  a  manner  which  I  profess  not  to  under- 
stand.     Having   observed   that   the   ridiculous   prejudice  of 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTRUS.  bO 

'Superstition  would  by  that  time  have  ceased  to  throw  over 
morals  a  corrupt  and  degrading-  .".usterity,  he  alludes  either  to 
a  promiscuous  concubinage  which  would  prevent  breeding,  or 
to  something  else  as  unnatural.  To  remove  the  difficult^'  in 
this  way  will  surely,  in  the  opinion  of  most  men,  be  to  destroy 
that  virtue  and  purity  of  manners  which  the  advocates  of 
■equality,  and  of  the  perfectibility  of  man,  profess  to  be  the 
■end  and  object  of  their  views." 

It  is  from  passages  such  as  these  that  Mr.  Malthus  differs  «o 
much  from  the  so-called  New-Malthusians,  who  look  for  the 
solution  of  the  population  difficult}'-  to  the  "  smnll-family 
system  "  of  the  French.  It  would  seem  that  the  great  French 
writer,  Condorcet,  had  a  prophetic  knowledge  of  what  the 
•effect  of  the  great  French  Rovolution  would  be,  a  revolution 
which,  by  converting  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  of  that  state  into 
the  proprietor,  has  made  France  the  most  prudent  country  in 
the  known  world  in  the  question  of  the  size  of  families.  Mr. 
Bonar,  too,  in  a  clever  pamphlet,  i:)ublished  in  1880,  shows 
that  Mr.  Malthus  retained  somewhat  the  same  phraseology  as 
he  uses  here,  in  his  7th  edition,  page  512,  where  he  thus 
«peaks:  "  If  it  were  possible  for  each  married  couple  to  limit 
by  a  wish  the  number  of  their  children,  there  is  certainly 
reason  to  fear  that  the  indolence  of  the  human  race  would  he 
very  greatly  increased."  Had  he  lived  in  1881,  and  seen  how 
rapidly  the  industrj'^  of  France  is  increasing,  her  wealth  develop- 
ing, and  poverty  diminishing  in  that  happiest  of  modern 
European  states  in  the  face  of  the  lowest  European  birth-rate 
(26  per  1,000),  he  would  have  been  the  first,  we  douiit  not,  to 
retract  these  crude  expressions,  and  to  see  wherein  tnie  virtue 
♦consists. 

M.  Condorcet  seems  to  have  entertained  some  very  hopeful 
ideas  as  to  the  j^erfectibility  of  the  human  frame,  and  to  have 
thought  that  though  man  would  not  become  absolutely 
immortal,  yet  that  the  duration  between  his  birth  and  his 
natural  death  would  increase  without  ceasing,  would  have  no 
natural  term,  and  might  properly  be  expressed  by  the  term 
indefinite.  Malthus  demurs  to  these  speculations.  He  thinks 
that  the  average  duration  of  human  life  will,  to  a  certain 
extent,  vary  from  healthy  or  unhealthy  climates,  from  whole- 
some or  unwholesome  food,  from  virtuous  or  vicious  manners, 
«!ul  from  other  causes  ;  but  it  may  be  fairl}'  doubted  whether 
there  has  been  really  the  smallest  perceptible  advance  in  tlie 
natural  duration  of  human  life  since  we  had  any  authentic 
liistory  of  man.  "  What  can  we  reason  but  from  what  we  know  ?" 


56  THE  LIFE  AND  WHITINGS 

"  The  capacity  of  improvement  in  plants  and  animals,  to 
a  certain  extent,  no  person  can  possibly  doubt.  A  clear 
and  decided  progress  has  already  been  made,  and  yet  I 
think  that  it  would  be  highly  absurd  to  say  that  this  progress- 
has  no  limits.  .  .  The  error  does  not  seem  to  lie  in  supposing 
a  small  degree  of  improvement  possible,  but  in  not  discrimi- 
nating between  a  small  improvement,  the  limit  of  whicli  is. 
undefined,  and  an  improvement  really  unlimited.  As  the 
human  race  could  not  be  improved  in  the  same  way  as  the 
domestic  animals,  without  condemning  all  the  bad  specimen* 
to  celibacy,  it  is  not  probable  that  an  attention  to  breed  should 
ever  become  general."  Here,  again,  we  prefer  the  injunction, 
of  Professor  Mantegazza  to  consumptive  parents  :  '  Anjntc 
ma  non  generate'  ('Marry  but  do  not  reproduce').  Tlie- 
speculations  of  Condurcet  seem,  to  a  certain  extent,  to  have- 
been  revived  in  modern  days  by  iMr.  H.  Spencer  and  Dr.  B.  W. 
Kichardson.  The  former  of  these  distinguished  authors  seems 
to  look  forward  to  a  time  when  tlie  wants  of  mankind  shall  by 
the  process  of  evolution  become  equated  to  their  powers  of 
acquiring  food,  without  calling  in  the  will ;  and  Dr.  Richard- 
son seems  to  look  forward  to  a  far  greater  longevity  for  indi- 
viduals of  the  human  species  than  has  been  experienced  in 
its  past  history. 

"  When  paradoxes  of  this  kind  (says  Malthus)  are  advanced 
by  ingenious  and  able  men,  neglect  has  no  tendency  to  con- 
vince them  of  their  mistakes.  Priding  themselves  on  what 
they  conceive  to  be  a  mark  of  the  make  and  size  of  their  own 
understandings,  of  the  extent  and  comprehensiveness  of  their- 
views,  they  will  look  upon  this  neglect  merely  as  an  indication 
of  poverty  and  narrowness  of  the  mental  exertions  of  their 
contemporaries,  and  only  think  that  the  world  is  not  yet  pre- 
pared to  receive  their  sublime  truths.  On  the  contrary,  a. 
candid  investigation  of  these  subjects,  accompanied  with  a. 
perfect  readiness  to  adopt  anything  warranted  by  sound 
philosophy,  may  have  a  tendency  to  convince  them  that  in. 
forming  unfounded  and  improbable  hypotheses,  so  far  fron>. 
enlaro'ing  the  bounds  of  science,  they  are  contracting  it ;  so  fat 
from  promoting  the  improvement  of  the  human  mind,  they 
are  obstructing  it ;  they  are  throwing  us  back  again  almost, 
into  the  infancy  of  knowledge,  and  weakening  the  founda- 
tions of  that  mode  of  philosophising  under  the  auspices  of 
which  science  has  of  late  made  such  rapid  advance.  The  late- 
rage  for  wide  and  unrestrained  speculation  seems  to  have  been 
a  kind  of  mental  intoxication,  arising  perhaps  from   the  great 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  5^ 

and  unexpected  discoveries  which  had  been  made  in  varioup^ 
branches  of  science.  To  men  elate  and  inspired  with  such 
successes,  everything  appears  to  be  within  the  grasp  of  human 
powers,  and  under  this  illusion  they  confounded  subjects  where 
no  real  piogress  could  be  proved  with  those  where  the  pro- 
gross  liad  been  marked,  certain  and  acknowledged." 

The  groat  antagonist  of  Mr.  Malthus  at  the  commencement 
of  this  century  was  Mr.  Godwin,  who,  in  his  work  on  Political 
Justice^  gives  a  magnificent  picture  of  a  system  of  equality, 
which,  by  his  account,  is  to  regenerate  society.  On  page  458 
ofbooklV.  of  that  work  Mr.  Godwin  thus  speaks: — *' The 
spirit  of  oppression,  the  spirit  of  servility,  and  the  spirit  of 
fraud,  then,  are  the  immediate  growth  of  the  established 
administration  of  property.  They  are  alike  hostile  to 
intellectual  improvement.  The  other  vices  of  envy,  malice^ 
and  revenge  are  their  inseparable  companions.  In  a  state  of 
society  where  men  lived  in  the  midst  of  plenty,  and  where  all 
shared  alike  the  bounties  of  nature,  these  sentiments  would 
inevitably  expire.  The  narrow  principle  of  selfishness  would 
vanish.  No  man  being  obliged  to  guard  his  little  store,  or 
provide  with  anxiety  or  pain  for  his  restless  wants,  each 
would  lose  his  individual  existence  in  the  thought  of  the 
general  good.  No  man  would  be  an  enemy  to  his  neighbours,, 
for  they  would  have  no  subject  of  contention  ;  and,  of  con- 
sequence, philanthropy  would  resume  the  empire  which  reason 
assigns  her.  Mind  would  be  delivered  from  her  perpetual 
anxiety  about  corporeal  support,  and  free  to  expatiate  in  the 
field  of  thou(!;ht  which  is  congenial  to  her.  Each  would  assist 
the  inquiries  of  all." 

The  great  error,  as  Malthus  observes,  under  which  Mi- 
Godwin  labors  throughout  his  whole  work  is  in  attributing 
almost  all  the  vices  and  miseries  that  prevail  in  civil  society  ta 
human  institutions.  Political  regulations,  and  the  established 
administration  of  property,  are,  with  him,  the  fruitful  sources 
of  all  evil,  the  hotbed  of  all  the  crimes  that  degiade  man^ 
kind.  "  Man  cannot  live  (says  Malthus)  in  the  midst  of 
plenty.  All  cannot  shaie  alike  the  bounties  of  nature.  Were 
there  no  established  administration  of  property,  every  man. 
would  be  obliged  to  guard  with  force  his  little  store.  Selfish- 
ness would  be  triumphant.  The  subjects  of  contention  would 
be  perpetual.  Every  individual  would  be  under  a  constant 
anxiety  about  corporeal  support,  and  not  a  single  intellect 
would  be  left  free  to  expatiate  in  the  field  of  thought." 

Mr.  Godwin  supposed  that  the  population   difficulty  wouldl 


JB8  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

only  become  of  importance  at  some  remote  future.  ''  Three- 
fourths  of  the  habitable  globe  are  now  uncultivated.  The 
parts  already  cultivated  are  capable  of  immeasurable  im- 
provement. Myriads  of  centuries  of  still  increasing  .popula- 
tion may  pass  away,  and  the  earth  be  still  found  sufficient  for 
the  subsistence  of  its  inhabitants."  Mr.  Malthus  asks  us  to 
imagine  for  a  moment  Mr.  Godwin's  S3^stem  of  eqnalit}'- 
realised  in  its  utmost  extent,  and  see  how  soon  the  difficulty 
•of  population  might  be  expected  to  press  upon  us  under  so 
perfect  a  form  of  society. 

Let  us  suppose,  he  saj's,  all  the  causes  of  vice  and  misery 
in  this  island  removed.  "  War  and  contention  cease.  Un- 
wholesome trades  and  manufactories  do  not  exist.  Crowds  no 
longer  collect  together  in  great  and  pestilent  cities  for  purposes 
■of  Court  intrigue,  of  commerce,  and  vicious  gratification. 
Simple,  healthy,  and  rational  amusements  take  place  of  drink- 
ing, gambling,  and  debauchery.  There  are  no  towns  sufficiently 
large  to  have  any  prejudicial  effects  on  the  human  constitution. 
"The  greater  part  of  the  happy  inhabitants  of  this  terrestrial 
Paradise  live  in  hamlets  and  farm-houses,  scattered  over  the 
face  of  the  country.  All  men  are  equal.  The  labors  of  luxury 
are  at  an  end,  and  the  necessary  labors  of  agriculture  are  shared 
-amicably  among  all.  The  number  of  persons  and  the  produce 
■of  the  island  we  suppose  to  be  the  same  as  at  present.  '*  The 
sjDirit  of  benevolence  guided  b}'  impartial  justice  will  divide 
this  produce  among  all  the  members  of  society  according  to 
■their  wants.  Though  it  would  be  impossible  that  they  should 
all  have  animal  food  every  day,  yet  vegetable  food,  with  meat 
occasionally,  would  satisfy  the  desires  of  a  frugal  people,  and 
would  be  sufficient  to  preserve  them  in  health,  strength,  and 
^spirits." 

"  Mr.  Godwin  considers  marriage  as  a  fraud  and  a  monopoly. 
Let  us  suppose  the  commerce  of  the  sexes  established  upon 
"principles  of  the  most  perfect  freedom.  Mr.  Godwin  does  not 
think  himself  that  this  freedom  would  lead  to  a  promiscuous 
ntercourse,  and  in  this  I  perfectly  agree  with  him.  The  love 
•of  variety  is  a  vicious,  corrupt,  and  unnatural  taste,  and  conld 
not  prevail  in  any  great  degree  in  a  simple  and  virtuou«i  state 
■of  society.  Each  man  would  probabl3'  select  for  himself  a 
partner  to  whom  he  would  adhere,  as  long  as  that  adherence 
•continued  to  be  the  choice  of  both  parties.  It  would  be  of 
little  consequence,  according  to  Mr.  Godwin,  how  many 
children  a  woman  had,  or  to  Avhom  the}^  belonged.  Provisions 
■andassistance  would  spontaneously  flow  from  the  quarter  in 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  69 

which  they  abounded  to  the  quarter  in  which  they  were 
deficient,  and  every  man  according  to  his  capacity  would  be 
ready  to  furnish  instruction  to  the  rising  generation." 

'*!  cannot  conceive  a  form  of  society  so  favorable  upon  the 
whole  to  population.  The  irremediableness  of  marriage,  as  it 
is  at  present  constituted,  undoubtedly  deters  many  from  enter- 
ing into  this  state.  An  unshackled  intercourse,  on  the 
-contrary,  would  be  a  most  powerful  incitement  to  early  attach- 
ments, and  as  we  are  supposing  no  anxiety  about  the  future 
support  of  children  to  exist,  I  do  not  conceive  that  there  would 
be  one  woman  in  a  hundred,  of  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
without  a  family." 

''  With  these  extraordinary  encouragements  to  population, 
and  every  cause  of  depopulation,  as  we  have  supposed,  removed, 
the  numbers  would  necessarily  increase  faster  than  in  any 
•society  that  has  ever  yet  been  known.  1  have  before  men- 
tioned that  the  inhabitants  of  the  back  settlements  of  America 
appear  to  double  their  numbers  in  fifteen  years.  England  is 
•certainly  a  healthier  country  than  the  back  settlements  of 
America ;  and  as  we  have  supposed  every  house  in  the  island 
to  be  airy  and  wholesome,  and  the  encouragements  to  have  a 
famil}^  greater  even  than  in  America,  no  probable  reason  can 
be  assigned  why  the  population  should  not  double  itself  in  less, 
if  possible,  than  fifteen  years."  .  .  .  '' It  is  probable  that 
'the  half  of  every  man's  time  (in  a  system  of  equality)  must  be 
•employed  for  this  purpose  (in  agriculture).  Yet  with  such  a 
much  greater  exertion,  a  person  who  is  acquainted  with  the 
nature  of  the  soil  of  the  country,  and  who  reflects  on  the 
fertility  of  the  lands  already  in  cultivation,  and  the  barrenness 
■  of  those  that  are  not  cultivated,  will  be  very  much  disposed  to 
doubt  whether  the  whole  average  produce  could  possibly  be 
•doubled  in  twenty  years  from  the  present  period.  The  only 
•  chance  of  success  would  be  from  the  ploughing  up  most  of  the 
grazing  countries,  and  putting  an  end  almost  entirely  to 
animal  food.  Yet  this  scheme  would  probably  defeat  itself. 
The  soil  of  England  will  not  produce  much  without  dressing ; 
and  cattle  seem  to  be  necessary  to  make  that  species  of  manure 
which  best  suits  the  land. 

"  Alas,  what  becomes  of  the  picture,  where  men  lived  in  the 
midst  of  plenty,  when  no  man  was  obliged  to  provide  with 
•anxiety  and  pain  for  his  restless  wants ;  when  the  narrow 
principles  of  selfishness  did  not  exist ;  when  the  man  was 
delivered  from  his  perpetual  anxiety  for  corporal  support,  and 
■free  to  expatiate  in  the  field  of  thought  which  is  so  congenial 


60  THE  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS 

to  him  ?  This  beauiifnl  fabric  of  the  imaginatiou  vanishes  at 
the  severe  touch  of  truth.  .  .  .  The  children  are  sickly 
from  insufficient  food.  The  rosy  flush  of  health  gives  place  to 
the  pallid  cheek  and  hollow  eye  of  misery." 

In  as  short  a  period  as  liftj'  years  the  whole  of  the  worst 
evils  of  society  will  certainly  re-appear,  if  population  be  not 
checked  (says  Malthus)  by  moral  restraint,  vice,  or  misery. 
After  showing  that  a  regime  of  equality  would  inevitably  end 
in  these  shallows,  so  long  as  the  birth-rate  was  not  restricted, 
Malthns  contends  that  some  such  laws  of  jDrivate  property,  as. 
those  which  at  present  exist,  would  be  certain  to  re-appear  and 
misery  to  be  increased.  He  then  continues  to  give  the  best 
account  of  the  irrevocable  contract  of  marriage,  with  which  we- 
are  familiar,  that  any  writer  has  ever  attempted  to  give. 

"  The  next  subject  which  would  come  under  discussion, 
intimately  connected  with  the  preceding,  is  the  commerce  of 
the  sexes.  It  would  be  urged  by  tho^se  who  had  turned  their 
attention  to  the  true  cause  of  the  difficulties  under  which  the- 
community  labored,  that  while  every  man  felt  secure  that  all 
his  children  would  be  well  provided  for  by  general  bene- 
volence, the  powers  of  the  earth  would  be  absolutely  inadequate 
to  produce  food  for  the  population  which  would  inevitably 
ensue  ;  that  even  if  the  whole  attention  and  labor  of  the 
society  were  directed  to  this  sole  point,  and  if  by  the  most 
perfect  security  of  property,  and  every  other  encouragement 
that  could  be  thought  of,  the  greatest  possible  increase  of  pro- 
duce were  yearly  obtained  ;  yet  still  the  increase  of  food  would 
by  no  means  keep  pace  with  the  much  more  rapid  increase  of 
population ;  that  some  check  to  population,  therefore,  was 
imperiously  called  for;  that  the  most  natural  and  obvious 
check  seemed  to  be  to  make  every  man  provide  for  his  own 
children  ;  that  this  would  operate  in  some  respect  as  a. 
measure  and  a  guide  in  the  increase  of  population,  as  it  might, 
be  expected  that  no  man  would  bring  beings  into  the  world 
for  whom  he  could  not  find  the  means  of  support ;  that  when 
this,  notwithstanding,  was  the  case,  it  seemed  necessary,  for 
the  example  of  others,  that  the  disgrace  and  inconvenience 
attending  such  conduct  should  fall  upon  that  individual  who 
had  thus  inconsiderately  plunged  himself  and  his  innocent 
children  into  want  and  misery.  The  institution  of  marriage, 
or  at  least  of  some  express  or  implied  obligation  on  every  man 
to  support  his  own  children,  seems  to  be  the  natural  result  of 
these  reasonings,  in  a  community  under  the  difficulties  that  we- 
have  supposed.'' 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  61 

Mr.  Malthus  then  proceeds  with  his  theory  of  the  reason 
why  society  punishes  carelessness  in  sexual  relations  much 
more  in  the  case  of  a  woman  than  in  that  of  a  man.  *'  The 
view  of  these  difficulties  presents  ns  with  a  very  natural 
reason  why  the  disgrace  which  attends  a  breach  of  chastity 
should  be  greater  in  a  woman  than  in  a  man.  It  could  not  be 
expected  that  a  woman  should  have  resources  sufficient  to 
support  her  own  children.  When,  therefore,  a  woman  had 
lived  with  a  man  who  had  entered  into  no  compact  to  main- 
tain her  children ;  and  aware  of  the  inconveniences  that  he 
might  bring  upon  himself,  had  deserted  her,  those  children 
must  necessarily  fall  upon  the  society  for  support  or  starve. 
And  to  prevent  the  frequent  recurrence  of  such  an  incon- 
venience, as  it  would  be  highly  unjust  to  punish  so  natural 
a  fault  b}'-  personal  restraint  or  infliction,  society  might  agree 
to  punish  it  with  disgrace.  The  defence  is  besides  more 
obvious  and  conspicuous  in  the  woman,  and  less  liable  to  aiiy 
mistike.  The  father  of  a  child  may  not  always  be  known  ; 
hut  the  same  uncertainty  cannot  easily  exist  with  regard  to 
the  mother.  Where  the  evidence  of  the  offence  was  most 
complete,  and  the  inconvenience  to  society  at  the  same  time 
the  greatest,  there  it  was  agreed  that  the  largest  share  of  blame 
should  fall.  The  obligation  on  every  man  to  support  his 
children  the  society  would  enforce  by  positive  law,  and  the 
greater  degree  of  inconvenience  or  labor  to  which  a  family 
would  necessarily  subject  him,  added  to  some  feature  of  dis- 
grace, which  every  human  being  must  incur  who  leads 
another  into  unhappiness,  might  be  considered  as  a  sufficient 
punishment  for  the  man. 

**  That  a  woman  should  at  present  be  almost  driven  from 
society  for  an  offence  which  men  commit  nearly  with  impunity, 
seems  to  be  undoubtedly  a  breach  of  natural  justice.  But  the 
origin  of  the  custom,  as  the  most  obvious  and  effectual  method 
of  preventing  the  frequent  recurrence  of  a  serious  inconvenience 
to  a  community,  appears  to  be  natural,  though  not  perhaps 
perfectly  justifiable.  This  origin,  however,  is  now  lost  in  the 
new  train  of  ideas  that  the  custom  has  since  generated.  What 
at  first  sight  might  be  dictated  by  state  necessity  is  now  sup- 
ported by  female  delicacy,  and  operates  with  the  greatest  force 
on  that  part  of  the  society,  where,  if  the  original  intention  of 
the  custom  were  preserved,  there  is  the  least  occasion  for  it." 

These  most  ingenious  speculations  of  our  author  contain  un- 
doubtedly a  great  deal  of  truth  in  them.  At  the  same  time, 
it  is  clear  that  when  society  shall  begin  to  replace  traditional 


62  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

views  of  morality  by  more  positive  and  scientific  deductions- 
from  experience,  when  it  shall  be  generally  acknowledged  in 
all  civilised  states  of  the  old  world  that  the  basis  of  true- 
morality  must  consist  in  that  conduct  which  will  keep  the  birth- 
rate very  low,  Mr.  Malthus's  arguments  in  favour  of  irre- 
vocable marriage  and  excessive  severity  towards  those  who 
prefer  not  to  enter  the  imperfect  marriage  arrangements  of 
modern  European  countries,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  what 
they  are  doing,  must  be  gradually  replaced  by  some  law  which 
shall  affix  a  stigma,  not  so  much  upon  illegitimacy,  but  rather 
upon  the  production  of  large  families.  Those  who  are  well 
acquainted  with  the  modern  position  of  the  marriage  question  in 
Europe,  and  who  have  studied  what  has  been  written  on  it  by 
Wilheliii  von  Humboldt  and  J.  S.  Mill,  will  readily  acknow- 
ledge that,  if  society  would  but  take  care  to  stigmatise  as- 
immoral  all  those  persons  who  take  more  than  a  very  moderate 
share  of  the  blessings  of  parentage  in  old  countries,  it  might,  as 
Humboldt  proposes,  entirely  withdraw  from  all  legal  interfer- 
ence in  the  contracts  between  the  sexes.  Moral  obligations  might 
still  remain  in  full  force  towards  those  who  have  been  led  to 
base  their  future  life  on  the  implied  continuance  of  such 
contracts  ;  but  doubtless  the  law  of  civilised  states  is  at  present 
tending  towards  far  greater  faciiitj'  of  dissolving  such  con- 
tracts than  Mr.  Malthus  seems  to  have  approved  of. 

In  chapter  III.  of  book  III.  our  author  disposes  of  the 
so-called  ''  futurit}^  fallac}',"  which  unfortunately  still  con- 
tinues to  be  opposed  to  the  teachings  of  the  economists,  as  if 
it  had  not  been  over  and  over  again  refuted  by  the  author  of 
the  essa}"-  on  population.  "  Other  persons,"  says  our  author, 
*'  besides  Mr.  Godwin  have  imagined  that  I  looked  to  certain 
j^eriods  in  future  when  population  would  exceed  the  means  of 
subsistence  in  a  much  greater  degree  than  at  present,  and  that 
the  evils  arising  from  the  principle  of  population  were  rather 
in  contemplation  than  in  existence ;  but  this  is  a  total  mis- 
conception of  my  argument.  Poverty,  and  not  absolute 
famine,  is  the  specific  effect  of  the  principle  of  population,  as 
I  have  before  endeavoured  to  show.  jMany  countries  are  now 
suffering  all  the  evils  that  can  ever  be  expected  to  flow  from 
this  principle,  and  even  if  we  were  arrived  at  the  absolute 
limit  to  all  further  increase  of  produce,  a  point  which  we  shall 
certainly  never  reach,  I  should  by  no  means  expect  that  those 
evils  would  be  in  anv  marked  manner  ao;o;ravated.  The 
increase  of  produce  in  most  European  countries  is  so  very 
slow,  compared  with  what  would  be  required  to  support  an 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  03 

unrestricted  increase  of  people,  that  the  checks  which  are 
constantly  in  action  to  repress  the  population  to  the  level  of  a 
produce  increasing  so  slowly  would  have  very  little  more  to 
do  in  wearing  it  down  to  a  produce  absolutely  stationary." 

The  great  historian  Hume  had  pointed  out  that  in  those 
countries  where  infanticide  was  permitted  by  law,  there  was 
greater  over-population  than  in  others  where  it  was  pro- 
hibited, because  parents  weie  too  humane  to  betake  themselves 
to  such  a  frightful  •'  positive  check."  The  excessive  poverty 
of  China,  where  the  custom  of  infanticide  prevails,  is  an 
example  of  the  truth  of  Mr.  Hume's  remarks.  ''It  is  still, 
however,  true/'  adds  our  author  (p.  139),  "that  the  ex- 
pedient is,  in  its  own  nature,  adequate  to  the  end  for  which  it 
was  cited,  but  to  make  it  so  in  fact,  it  must  be  done  by  the 
magistrate,  and  not  left  to  the  parents.  The  almost  invariable 
tendency  of  this  custom  to  increase  population,  when  it  depends 
entirely  upon  the  parents,  shows  the  extreme  pain  which  they 
muet  feel  in  making  such  a  sacrifice,  even  when  the  distress 
arising  from  excessive  poverty  may  be  supposed  to  have 
deadened  in  great  measure  their  sensibility.  What  must  the 
pain  be  then  upon  the  supposition  of  the  interference  of  a. 
magistrate,  or  of  a  positive  law,  to  make  parents  destroy  a 
child,  which  they  feel  the  desire  and  think  they  possess  the 
power  of  supj)orting  ?  The  permission  of  infanticide  is  bad 
enough  and  cannot  but  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  moral  sen- 
sibility of  a  nation  :  but  I  cannot  conceive  anything  more 
detestable  or  shocking  to  the  feelings  than  any  direct  regula- 
tion of  this  kind,  although  sanctioned  by  the  names  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle." 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  Mr.  Godwin  {Reply,  p.  70),  made 
a  supposition  respecting  the  number  of  children  that  might  be 
allowed  to  each  prolific  marriage.  That  writer,  however,  did 
not  enter  into  any  detail  as  to  the  mode  by  which  a  greater 
number  might  be  prevented.  The  last  check  which  Mr. 
Godwin  mentions,  Mr.  Malthtis  feels  persuaded  is  the  only, 
one  which  that  author  would  seriously  recommend.  It  is 
"  That  sentiment,  whether  virtue,  prudence,  or  pride,  which 
continually  restrains  the  universality  and  frequent  rejjetition  of 
the  marriage  contract."  He  says  he  entirely  approves  of  this 
check,  and  adds  that  the  tendency  to  early  marriage  is  so 
strong  that  we  want  every  possible  help  that  we  can  get  to 
counteract  it ;  and  therefore  he  thinks  that  a  system  of  equality 
like  that  proposed  by  Mr.  Godwin,  which  tends  to  weaken  the 
foundations  of  private  property,  and  to  lessen  in  any  degree 


64  THE  LIFE  AND    WKITIKGS 

the  full  advantage  and  superiority  which  each  individual  may 
•derive  from  his  prudence,  must  remove  the  only  counteracting 
weight  to  the  passion  of  love  that  can  be  depended  upon  for 
■any  essential  effect. 

Mr.  Godwin  acknowledges  that  in  his  system  "  the  ill  con- 
sequences of  a  numerous  family  will  not  come  so  coarsely 
home  to  each  man's  individual  interest  as  they  do  at  present." 
Mr.  Malthus  is  sorry  to  say  that  from  what  we  know  hitherto 
of  the  human  character,  we  can  have  no  rational  hopes  of 
success  without  this  coarse  application  to  individual  interest. 

In  our  author's  day  it  was  out  of  the  question  for  him  to  be 
aware  that  Mr.  Godwin's  hint  as  to  the  limitation  of  the 
family  would  come  to  be  the  prominent  social  doctrine  it  has 
iince  become.  In  France,  amoug  tie  "espectable  classes  the 
production  of  a  large  family  is  now  looked  upon  as  quite  a 
mark  of  a  low  state  of  morality  and  culture ;  and  so  effectual 
has  this  public  opinion  become  in  that  most  remarkable  state 
that  the  families  of  the  professional  classes  are  not  even  two 
on  an  average  (1.74).  That  Mr.  Malthus  should  have  con- 
sidered late  marriage  as  the  only  remedy  for  poverty  i« 
easily  understood.  Experience  alone  can  enable  mankind  to 
judge  of  how  happiness  is  to  be  best  attained  ;  and  it  was 
doubtless  because  our  incompaiable  writer  on  social  questions, 
Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  had  so  long  resided  in  France  that  he  could 
take  the  decided  stand  he  did  against  the  large  families  which 
cause  such  terrible  misery  in  England  and  Germany.  The 
result  of  this  great  prudence  among  the  better  classes  of 
France  is  well  shown  by  the  very  small  excess  of  births  over 
deaths.  Thus,  in  1879,  the  increase  of  population  from  this 
cause  was  but  92,000,  whereas  M.  Yves  Guyot  speaks  of  a 
total  of  births  in  1879  in  unfortunate  Ireland  of  887,055, 
with  a  total  of  deaths  of  500,^48,  which  gives  an  excess  of 
births  over  deaths,  in  a  population  of  about  five  millions,  of 
386,707.  No  wonder  that  Ireland  is  so  fond  of  emigration 
and  still  so  steeped  in  poverty. 

It  has  recently  been  contended  by  the  author  of  the 
**  Elements  of  Social  Science  "  that  the  only  way  of  raising 
wages  and  profits  in  old  countries  and  making  life  a  desirable 
thing  to  all  lies  in  the  state  making  it  an  offence,  to  be 
punished  by  a  small  fine,  to  bring  into  an  overcrowded 
country  more  than  a  very  moderate  average  number  of 
children.  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  teachings  tended  in  the  same 
direction,  and  this  view  of  the  duty  of  the  citizen  towards  his 
neighbour  is  fast  becoming  a  piece  of  morality  accepted  by 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS. 


65 


the  most  thinking  and  most  dutiful  portion  of  society.  When 
tnis  duty  of  limiting  our  offspring,  not  only  to  the  income 
we  possess,  but  also  to  the  powers  possessed  by  the  com- 
munity, of  affording  an  increase  of  numbers,  becomes  a 
political  question,  then,  but  not  until  then,  will  happiness  fop 
the  masses  be  possible. 


66  THS  LISE  A^D   WiiiTlKtia 


CHAPTER  IX. 


OW       POOB        LAWS. 


IN  Chapter  V.   of  Mr.   Malthus's  book  iii.,   vre  have  thes& 
luminous  remarks  of  his  on  Poor  Laws,  which  have  been 
80  often  quoted  by  statesmen  and  jDhilanthropists : — 

"  It  is,"  says  our  author,  "  a  subject  often  started  in  con- 
versation, and  mentioned  always  as  a  matter  of  great  surprise,, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  immense  sum  which  is  annually 
collected  for  the  poor  in  this  country,  there  is  still  so  much 
distress  among  them.  But  a  man  who  looks  a  little  below  the 
surface  of  things  would  be  much  more  astonished  if  the  fact 
were  otherwise  than  it  is  showed  to  be,  or  even  if  a  collection 
universally  of  eighteen  shillings  in  the  pound,  instead  of  four, 
were  materially  to  alter  it.  Suppose  that  by  a  subscription  of 
the  rich,  the  eighteen  pence  or  two  shillings  which  men  earn 
now  were  made  up  to  four  shillings,  it  might  be  imagined, 
perhaps,  that  they  would  then  be  able  to  live  comfortably, 
and  have  a  piece  of  meat  every  day  for  their  dinner.  But  this 
would  be  a  very  false  conclusion.  The  transfer  of  three  ad- 
ditional shillings  a  day  to  each  labourer  would  not  increase 
the  quantity  of  meat  in  the  country.  There  is  not  at  present 
enough  for  all  to  have  a  moderate  share.  What  would  then 
be  the  consequence  ?  The  competition  among  the  buyers  in 
the  market  of  meat  would  rapidly  raise  the  price  from  Sd.  or 
9d.  to  two  or  three  shillings  in  the  pound,  and  the  commodity 
would  not  be  divided  among  many  more  people  than  at- 
present. 

"  When  an  article  is  scarce,  and  cannot  be  distributed  to  all, 
he  that  can  show  the  most  valid  patent,  that  is,  he  that  offers 
the  most  money,  becomes  the  possessor  .  .  .  and  when 
subsistence  is  scarce  in  jDroportion  to  the  number  of  the  people, 
it  is  of  little  consequence  whether  the  lowest  members  of  the 
society  possess  two  shillings  or  five.  They  must,  at  all  events, 
be  reduced  to  live  upon  the  hardest  fare  and  in  the  smallest 
quantity. 

"  A  collection  from  the  rich  of  eighteen  shillings  in  the 
pound,  even  if  distributed  in  the  most  judicious  manner, 
would  have  an  effect  similar  to  that  resulting  from  the  suppo- 


or  THOMAS  K.  M.VLTUUS.  67 

eition  which  I  have  just  made:  and  no  possible  sacrifices  of 
the  rich,  particularly  iu  money,  would  for  an}'  time  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  distress  among  the  lower  members  of  society, 
whoever  they  were.  Great  changes  might,  indeed,  be  made. 
The  rich  might  become  poor  and  some  of  the  poor  rich  ;  but 
while  the  present  proportion  between  population  and  food  con- 
tinues, a  part  of  society  must  necessarily  find  it  difficult  to 
support  a  family,  and  this  difficulty  will  naturally  fall  on  the 
least  fortunate  members." 

Malthus  mentions  that  in  a  great  scarcity  which  occurred  in 
England  in  1801,  no  less  than  ten  millions  sterling  were  given 
away  in  charity.  In  one  case  cited  by  our  author,  a  man  with 
a  family  received  fourteen  shillings  a  week  from  his  parish. 
His  common  earnings  were  ten  shillings  a  week,  and  his 
weekly  revenue  therefore  twenty-four.  Before  the  scarcity 
he  had  been  in  the  liabit  of  purchasing  a  bushel  of  flour  a 
week,  with  eight  shillings  perhaps,  and  consequently  had  tw* 
shillings  out  of  his  ten  to  spare  for  other  necessaries.  During 
the  scarcity  he  was  enabled  to  purchase  the  same  quantity  at 
nearly  three  times  the  price.  He  paid  twenty-two  shillings 
■for  his  bushel  of  flour,  and  had  as  before  two  shillings  remain- 
ing for  other  wants. 

'  The  price  of  labour,  says  Malthus,  when  left  to  find  its  natu- 
ral level,  is  a  most  important  political  barometer,  explaining 
the  relations  between  the  supply  of  provisions  and  the  demand 
for  them  :  between  the  quantity  to  be  consumed  and  the  num- 
ber of  consumers :  and,  taken  on  the  average,  it  further  ex- 
presses clearly  the  wants  of  society  respecting  jjopulation — 
that  is,  whatever  may  be  the  number  of  children  to  a  marriage 
necessary  to  maintain  exactlj'^  the  present  population,  the  price 
of  labour  will  be  just  sufficient  to  support  this  number,  or  be 
above  it  or  below  it,  according  to  the  state  of  the  real  funds 
for  the  maintenance  of  labour,  whether  stationary,  progressive, 
or  retrograde.  .  *'  Instead,  however,  of  considering  it  in  this 
light,  we  consider  it  as  something  which  we  may  raise  or 
depress  at  pleasure,  something  which  depends  principally 
upon  his  Majesty's  justices  of  the  peace.  When  an  advance 
in  the  price  of  proyisons  already  expresses  that  the  demand  is 
too  great  for  the  supply,  in  order  to  put  the  labourer  in  the 
game  position  as  before,  we  raise  the  price  of  labour  ;  that  is, 
we  increase  the  demand,  and  are  then  much  surprised  that 
the  price  of  provisions  continues  rising.  In  this  we  act  much 
in  the  same  manner  as  if,  when  the  quicksilver  in  the 
common  glass  stood  at  *  stormy,'  we  were  to  raise  it  by  some 


68  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

mechanical  pressure  to  *  settled  fair,'  aud  then  be  greatly- 
astonished  that  it  continued  raining." 

''  In  the  natural  order  of  things,  a  scarcity  must  tend  to 
lower,  instead  of  to  raise,  the  price  of  labour.  Many  men  who 
would  shrink  at  the  proposal  of  a  maximum  would  propose 
themselves  that  the  price  of  labour  should  be  proportioned  to 
the  price  of  provisions,  and  do  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  the 
two  proposals  are  very  nearly  of  the  same  nature,  and  that 
both  tend  directly  to  famine.  It  matters  not  whether  we 
enable  the  labourer  to  purchase  the  same  quantity  of  pro- 
visions which  he  did  before  by  fixing  their  price,  or  by  rais- 
ing in  proportion  the  price  of  labour." 

These  arguments  of  Mr.  Malthus  were  a  death-blow  to  the 
frightful  system  of  the  rate  in  aid  of  wages  which  at  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century  was  fast  turning  England  into  the 
most  pauper-ridden  country  in  Europe. 

In  Chapter  VI.  of  Book  iii.,  Malthus  remarks  that,  indepen- 
dently  of  any  considerations  respecting  a  year  of  deficient 
crops,  it  is  evident  that  an  increase  of  population  without  a 
proportional  increase  of  food  must  lower  the  value  of  each 
man's  earnings.  The  food  must  necessaiily  be  distributed  in 
smaller  quantities,  and  consequently  a  day's  labour  will  pur- 
chase a  smaller  quantity  of  provisions.  An  increase  in  the 
price  of  provisions  will  arise  either  from  an  increase  of  popu- 
lation faster  than  the  means  of  subsistence,  or  from  a  different 
distribution  of  the  money  of  the  society. 

Speaking  uf  the  Poor  Laws  of  ISUo,  hesays:  "The  Poor 
Laws  of  England  tend  to  depress  the  general  condition  of  the 
poor  in  two  ways.  Their  fii'st  obvious  tendency  is  to  increase 
population  without  increasing  the  food  for  its  support.  A  poor 
man  may  marry  with  little  or  no  prospect  of  being  able  to 
support  a  family  without  parish  assistance.  They  maybe  said, 
therefore,  to  create  the  poor  which  they  maintain ;  and  as  the 
provisions  of  the  country  must,  in  consequence  of  the  increased 
population  be  distributed  to  every  man  in  smaller  proportions, 
it  is  evident  that  the  labour  of  those  who  are  not  supported  by 
parish  assistance  will  purchase  a  smaller  quantity  of  provisions 
than  before,  and  consequently  many  of  them  must  be  driven 
to  apply  for  assistance. 

*'  Secondly,  the  quantity  of  provisions  consumed  in  work- 
aouse.s,  upon  a  part  of  the  society  that  cannot  be  considered  the 
most  valuable  part,  diminishes  the  shares  that  would  otherwise 
belontr  to  the  more  industrious  and  more  worthy  members,  and 


OF    THOMAS    R      M.\LT1IUS.  ^9 

this,  in  the  same  manner,  forces  more  to  become  depenrlent. 
If  the  poor  in  the  workhouses  were  to  live  better  than  thev  do 
now,  this  new  distribution  of  the  monev  of  the  society  would 
tend  more  conspicuously  to  depress  the  condition  "^of  those 
out  of  the  workhouse,  by  occasioning  an  advance  in  the  price 
of  provisions." 

Fortunately  for  England,  says  our  author,  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence still  remains  among  the  peasantry.  The  poor  laws 
are  strongly  calculated  to  eradicate  this  spirit.  "  They  have 
succeeded  in  part :  but  had  they  succeeded  as  completely  as 
might  have  been  expected,  their  pernicious  tendency  would 
not  have  been  so  long  concealed." 

The  following  paragraph  has  often  been  cited  by  violent 
democrats  as  a  proof  of  the  hard-heartedness  of  Mai  thus.  At 
present,  few  of  the  ultra-liberal  party  in  this  country  are  ill- 
instructed  enough  to  vituperate  any  one  for  his  opinions  in 
this  matter.  "  Hard  as  it  may  appear,"  he  continues,  "  in  in- 
dividual cases,  dependent  poverty  ought  to  be  held  disgraceful. 
Such  a  stimulus  seems  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to  promote 
the  happiness  of  the  general  mass  of  mankind:  and  every 
general  attempt  to  weaken  this  stimulus,  however  benevolent 
its  intention,  will  always  defeat  its  own  purpose.  If  men  be 
induced  to  marry  from  the  mere  prospect  of  parish  provision, 
they  are  not  only  unjustly  tempted  to  bring  unhappiness  and 
dependence  upon  themselves  and  children,  but  they  are 
tempted,  without  knowing  it,  to  injure  all  in  the  same  class 
with  themselves." 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  independence  of  character  of  the 
English  labouring  classes  was  fatally  lowered  by  the  system 
Malthus  complains  of,  for  to  this  very  day,  in  many  counties, 
the  following  experience  of  our  author  holds  good.  ''  The 
labouring  poor,  to  use  a  vulgar  expression,  seem  always  to  live 
from  hand  to  mouth.  Their  present  wants  employ  their  whole 
attention  ;  and  they  seldom  think  of  the  future.  Even  when 
they  have  an  opportunity  of  suving  they  seldom  exercise  it ; 
but  all  that  they  earn  beyond  their  present  necessities  goes, 
generally  speaking,  to  the  alehouse.  The  poor  laws  may, 
therefore,  be  said  to  diminish  both  the  power  and  the  will  to 
save  among  the  common  people,  and  thus  to  weaken  one  of 
the  strongest  incentives  to  sobriety  and  industry,  and  conse- 
quently to  happiness." 

No  wonder  that  Thomas  Chalmers,  the  great  Scottish 
economist,  struggled  so  hard  against  the  introduction  of  the 


70  THE    LIFE    AND    WRITINGS 

English  poor  laws  into  Scotland.  That  poor  law  in  Scotland 
is  at  present  worse  administered  than  it  even  is  in  England, 
and  has  done  much  to  create  a  pauper  class.  There  is,  indeed, 
but  little  prospect  of  another  poet  like  Burns  arising  in 
modern  Scotland.  "  The  Cotters'  Saturday  Night "  was 
composed  when  the  parish  gave  discriminating  relief  onlj  to 
the  worthy  and  necessitous. 

"  These  evils,"  says  Malthus,  "attendant  on  the  poor  laws 
seem  to  be  irremediable.  If  assistance  is  to  be  distributed  to 
a  certain  class  of  people,  a  power  must  be  lodged  somewhere 
of  discriminating  the  proper  objects,  and  of  managing  the 
concerns  of  the  institutions  that  are  necessary  ;  but  any  great 
interference  with  the  affairs  of  other  people  is  a  species  of 
tyranny,  and  in  the  common  course  of  things,  the  exercise  of 
this  power  may  be  expected  to  become  grating  to  those  who 
are  driven  to  ask  for  support.  The  tyranny  of  justices,  church- 
wardens, and  overseers,  is  a  common  complaint  among  the  poor ; 
but  the  fault  does  not  lie  so  much  in  these  persons,  who  pro- 
bably before  they  were  in  power  were  not  more  cruel  than  other 
people,  but  in  the  nature  of  all  such  institutions.  I  feel  per- 
suaded that  if  the  poor  laws  had  never  existed  in  this  country, 
though  there  might  have  been  a  few  more  instances  of  very 
severe  distress,  the  aggregate  mass  of  happiness  among  the 
common  people  would  have  been  much  greater  than  it  is  at 
present." 

The  famous  43rd  of  Elizabeth,  which  has  been  so  often 
referred  to  and  admired,  enacts  that  the  overseers  of  the  poor 
*'  shall  take  order  from  time  to  time,  by  and  with  the  consent 
of  two  or  more  justices,  for  setting  to  work  the  children  of  all 
such  whose  parents  shall  not  by  the  said  persons  be  thought 
able  to  keep  and  maintain  their  children ;  and  also  such 
persons  married  or  unmarried,  as  having  no  means  to  maintain 
them,  use  no  ordinary  and  daily  trade  of  life  to  get  their 
living  by.  And  also  to  raise,  weekly  or  otherwise,  by  taxation 
of  every  inhabitant,  and  every  occupier  of  lands  in  the  said 
parish  (in  such  competent  sums  as  they  shall  think  fit)  a 
convenient  stock  of  flax,  hemp,  wax,  thread,  iron,  and  other 
necessary  ware  and  stuff,  to  set  the  poor  to  work." 

"  What  is  this,"  exclaims  Malthus,  "  but  saying  that  the 
funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labour  in  this  country  may  be 
increased  at  will,  and  without  limit,  by  a  Jia/  of  Government, 
or  an  assessment  of  the  overseers.  Strictly  speaking,  this 
clause  is  as  arrogant  and  as  absurd  as  if  it  had   enacted  thai 


OF    THOMAS    R.    MALTHUS  71 

-two  ears  of  wheat  should  grow  where  one  only  had  grown 
before.  Canute,  when  he  commanded  the  waves  not  to  wet 
his  princely  foot,  did  not,  in  reality,  assume  a  greater  power 
over  the  laws  of  nature.  No  directions  are  given  to  the  over- 
seers how  to  increase  the  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labour ; 
the  necessity  of  industry,  economy,  and  enlightened  exertion, 
in  the  management  of  agricultural  and  commercial  capital,  is 
not  insisted  on  for  this  purpose  ;  but  it  is  expected  that  a 
■miraculous  increase  of  these  funds  should  immediately  follow 
an  edict  of  the  Grovernment,  used  at  the  discretion  of  some 
ignorant  parish  officers.'* 

Mr.  Malthus  adds  to  these  denunciations  of  the  Poor  Law 
Act  of  Elizabeth,  as  carried  out  in  1805,  the  following: 
**  If  this  clause  were  really  and  bond  fide  put  into  exe- 
cution, and  the  shame  attending  the  receiving  of  parish 
relief  worn  off,  every  labouring  man  might  marry  as  early  as 
he  pleased,  under  the  certain  prospect  of  having  all  his  child- 
ren properly  provided  for ;  and,  as  according  to  the  supposition, 
there  would  be  no  check  on  population  from  the  consequences 
•of  poverty  after  marriage,  the  increase  of  population  would 
be  rapid  beyond  example  in  old  States.  After  what  has  been 
said  in  the  former  part  of  this  work,  it  is  submitted  to  the 
reader  whether  the  utmost  exertions  of  the  enlightened  go- 
vernment could,  in  this  case,  make  the  food  keep  pace  with 
the  population,  much  less  a  more  arbitrary  effort,  the  tendency 
of  which  is  certainly  rather  to  diminish  than  to  increase  the 
funds  for  the  maintenance  of  productive  labour." 

In  the  year  1880  it  was  found  by  the  census  of  our  most 
flourishing  colony  of  New  Zealand  that  the  population  of  those 
fertile  islands  had  actually  been  able  to  double  in  eleven 
years.  But,  as  Mr.  Malthus  observes  :  "  After  a  country  has 
once  ceased  to  be  in  the  peculiar  situation  of  a  new  colony,  we 
Bhall  always  find  that  in  the  actual  state  of  its  cultivation,  or 
in  that  state  which  may  rationally  be  expected  from  the  most 
enlightened  government,  the  increase  of  its  food  can  never 
allow  for  any  length  of  time  an  unrestricted  increase  of  po- 
pulation, and,  therefore,  the  due  execution  of  the  clause  in 
the  43rd  of  Elizabeth,  as  a  permanent  law,  is  a  physical 
impossibility." 

One  only  circumstance,  Mr.  Malthus  seems  to  think,  in  the 
administration  of  the  English  Poor  Laws  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  century  prevented  them  from  plunging  the  coun- 
try into  ruin.  This  was  the  condition  that  they  contained 
that  each  parish  should  maintain  its  own  poor.     "  As  each 


""  THE  LIFE  AND   WRITINGS 


pa]-ish  he  says,  ''is  obliged  to  maintain  its  own  poor,  it  i^ 
naturally  fearful  of  increasing  their  numbers,  and  every  land- 
holder IS,  m  consequence,  more  inclined  to  pull  down  than  to 
build  cottages.  This  deficiency  of  cottages  operates  neces- 
sarily as  a  strong  check  to  marriage,  and  this  olieck  is  probably 
the  principal  reason  why  we  have  been  able  to  continue  tho- 
system  of  the  poor  laws  so  long." 

Mr.  Malthus'  writings  made  such  a  powerful  impression  on 
the  minds  of  his  contemporaries,  that  in  1834  an  entire  revo- 
lution took  place  in  the   Poor  Laws  of  England  and  Wales 
Mr.  Gladstone,  m   an  admirable  speech   on  Free  Trade   deb 
yered  in  Leeds  in  the  summer  of  1881,  refers  to  the  passino-  oi 
this  Act  as  the  most  beneficent  change  that  had  preceded'the 
Jong  and  earnest  struggle  which  immediately  followed  upon 
the  principles   of  Free  Trade,  and  which  culminated  in  1846- 
m  the  abolition  of  the  duties  on   food  supplies.      Mr.  John 
btuart  Mill  is  enthusiastic  in  his  admiration  of  the  Act  of  1834 
In  his  magnificent  and  well  known  chapter  on  Popular  Eeme 
dies  for  Low  Wages  (Book  ij.  chap.  12,  §  2.),  he  thus   speaks- 
of  the  English  Law  of  1884  :•— 

''To  give  profusely  to  the  people,  whether  under  the  namo 
ot  charity  or  of  employment,  without  placing  them  under  such 
influences  that  prudential  motives  shall  act  powerfully  upon 
them,  is  to  lavish  the  means  of  benefiting  mankind  without 
attainmg  the  object.  Leave  the  people  in  a  situation  in  which 
their  condition  manifestly  depends  upon  their  number,  and  the 
greatest  permanent  benefit  may  be  derived  from  any  sacrifice- 
made  to  improve  the  physical  well-being  of  the  present  vene- 
ration, and  raise,  by  that  means,  the  habits  of  their  children 
But  remove  the  regulation  of  their  wages  from  their  own  con- 
trol ;  guarantee  to  them  a  certain  payment,  either  by  law  or 
by  the  feeling  of  the  community ;  and  no  amount  of  comfort 
that  you  can  give  them  will  make  either  them  or  their  de- 
scendents  look  to  to  their  own  self-restraint  as  the  proper 
means  for  preserving  them  in  that  state.  You  will  only  make 
them  indignantly  claim  the  continuance  of  your  guarantee  to- 
themselves,  and  their  full  complement  of  possible'^posterity." 

"  On  these  grounds  some  writers  have  altogether  condemned, 
the  English  Poor  Law,  and  any  system  of  relief  to  the  able- 
bodied,  at  least  when  uncombined  with  systematic  legal  pre- 
cautions against  over-population.  The  fainous  Act  of  the  43rd 
of  Elizabeth  undertook,  on  the  part  of  the  public,  to  provide 
work  and  wages  for  all  the  able-bodied  :  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  li  the  intent  of  that  Act  had  been  fully  carried  out 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHU8.  73 

and  no  means  had  been  adopted  by  the  administrators  of  relief 
to  neutralize  its  natural  tendencies,  the  poor-rate  would  by 
this  time  have  absorbed  the  whole  net  produce  of  the  land  and 
labour  of  the  country." 

"  It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Malthus  and 
others  should  at  first  have  concluded  against  all  Poor  Laws 
whatever.  It  required  much  experience,  and  careful  examina- 
tion of  different,  modes  of  Poor  Law  management,  to  give 
assurance  that  the  admission  of  an  absolute  right  to  be  sup- 
ported at  the  cost  of  other  people  could  exi«t  in  law  and  in 
fact,  without  fatally  relaxing  the  springs  of  industry  and  the- 
restraints  of  prudence.  This,  however,  was  fully  substantiated 
by  the  investigations  of  the  original  Poor  Law  Commissioners. 
Hostile  as  they  are  unjustly  accused  of  being  to  the  principle 
of  legal  relief,  they  are  the  first  who  fully  proved  the  com« 
Ijatibility  of  any  Poor  Law  in  which  a  right  to  relief  was 
recognised  with  the  permanent  interests  of  the  labouring  class 
and  of  posterity." 

"  By  a  collection  of  facts,  experimentally  ascertained  in 
parishes  scattered  throughout  England,  it  was  shown  that  the 
guarantee  of  support  could  be  freed  from  its  injurious  effects 
upon  the  minds  and  habits  of  the  people,  if  the  relief,  thougli 
ample  in  respect  to  necessaries,  was  accompanied  with  con- 
ditions which  they  disliked,  consisting  of  some  restraints  on. 
their  freedom,  and  the  privation  of  some  indulgences." 

**  Under  this  proviso  it  may  be  regarded  as  irrevocably  es- 
tablished that  the  fate  of  no  member  of  the  community  need, 
be  abandoned  to  chance  ;  that  society  can  and  therefore  ought 
to  ensure  every  individual  belonging  to  it  against  the  extreme 
of  want ;  that  the  condition,  even  of  those  who  are  unable  to- 
find  their  own  support,  need  not  be  one  of  physical  suffering, 
or  the  dread  of  it,  but  only  of  restricted  indulgences  and  en- 
forced rigidity  of  discipline.  This  is  surely  something  gained 
for  humanit}^,  important  in  itself,  and  still  more  so  as  a  step  to 
something  beyond ;  and  humanity  has  no  worse  enemies  than 
those  who  lend  themselves,  either  knowingly  or  unintention- 
ally, to  bring  odium  on  this  law,  or  on  the  principles  in  which 
it  originated." 

"In  the  actual  circumstances  of  every  country  (says  Mal- 
thus, p.  180,  Book  iii.)  the  prolific  power  of  nature  seems- 
always  ready  to  exert  nearly  its  full  force ;  but  within 
the  limit  of  possibility,  there  is  nothing,  perhaps,  more  im- 
probable, or  more  out  of  the  reach  of  any  government  to 
effect,  than  the  direction  of  the  industry  of  its  subjects  in. 


"74  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

such  a  manner  as  to  produce  the  greatest  quantity  of  sustenance 
that  the  earth  could  bear.  It  evidentl}^  could  not  be  done 
without  the  most  complete  violation  of  the  law  of  property, 
from  which  everything  that  is  valuable  to  man  has  hitherto 
■  arisen.  Such  is  the  disposition  to  marry,  particularly  in  very 
young  people,  that  if  the  difi&culties  of  providing  for  a  family 
were  entirely  removed,  very  few  would  remain  single  at 
twenty-two.  But  what  statesman  or  rational  government 
•could  propose  that  all  animal  food  should  be  prohibited,  that 
no  horses  should  be  used  for  business  or  pleasure,  that  all 
people  should  live  upon  potatoes,  and  that  the  whole  industry 
of  the  nation  should  be  exerted  in  the  production  of  them, 
•except  what  was  necessary  for  the  mere  necessaries  of  clothing 
•  and  houses.  Could  such  a  revolution  be  effected,  would  it  be 
•desirable  ;  particularly  as,  in  a  few  years,  notwithstanding  all 
their  exertions,  want,  with  less  resource  than  ever,  would 
inevitably  recur." 

''  The  attempts,"  says  our  author,  "  to  employ  the  poor  on 
any  great  sale  in  manufactures  have  almost  invariably  failed, 
and  the  stock  and  materials  have  been  wasted.  In  those  few 
parishes  which,  by  better  management  of  larger  funds,  have 
been  enabled  to  persevere  in  this  system,  the  effect  of  these 
new  manufactures  in  the  market  must  have  been  to  throw  out 
•of  employment  many  independent  workmen,  who  were  before 
•engaged  in  fabrications  of  a  similar  nature.  This  effect  has 
been  placed  in  a  strong  point  of  view  by  Daniel  De  Foe,  in  an 
•address  to  Parliament,  entitled  Giving  Alms  no  Charity.  Speak- 
ing of  the  employment  of  parish  children  in  manufactories,  he 
.says,  *  For  every  skein  of  worsted  these  poor  children  spin 
i;here  must  be  a  skein  the  less  spun  by  some  poor  family  that 
spun  it  before.'  Sir  F.  M.  Eden,  on  the  same  subject,  ob- 
serves, that  whether  mops  and  brooms  are  made  by  parish 
•children  or  by  private  workmen,  no  more  can  be  sold  than 
the  public  is  in  want  of." 

"  It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  the  same  reasoning  might 
be  applied  to  any  new  capital  brought  into  competition  in  a 
particular  trade  or  manufacture,  which  can  rarely  be  done 
without  injuring,  in  some  degree,  those  that  were  engaged  in 
it  before.  But  there  is  a  material  difference  in  the  two  cases. 
In  this,  the  competition  is  perfectly  fair,  and  what  every  man 
•on  entering  his  business  must  lay  his  account  to.  He  may 
rest  secure  that  he  will  not  be  supplanted,  unless  his  competi- 
tor possess  superior  skill  and  industry.  In  the  other  case,  the 
•competition  is  supported  by  a  great  bounty,  by  which  means, 


OP  THOMAS  R     MALTHUS.  75 

aiotwithstandmg  very  inferior  skill  and  industry  on  the  part 
of  his  competitors,  the  independent  workman  may  be  under- 
•sold,  and  unjustly  excluded  from  the  market.  He  himself  is 
made  to  contribute  to  this  competition  against  his  own  earn- 
ings, and  the  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labour  are  thus 
turned  from  the  support  of  a  trade  which  yields  a  proper  profit 
to  one  which  cannot  maintain  itself  without  a  bounty.  It 
should  be  observed  in  general  that  when  a  fund  for  the  main- 
■tenance  of  labour  is  raised  by  assessment,  the  greatest  part  of 
it  is  not  a  new  capital  brought  into  trade,  but  an  old  one, 
which  before  was  much  more  profitably  employed,  turned  into 
:a  new  channel.  The  farmer  pays  to  the  poor's  rates  for  the 
•encouragement  of  a  bad  and  unprofitable  manufacture  what 
he  would  have  employed  on  his  land  with  infinitely  more  ad- 
vantage to  his  country.  In  the  one  case,  the  funds  for  the 
maintenance  of  labour  are  daily  diminished ;  in  the  other, 
•daily  increased.  And  this  obvious  tendency  of  assessments 
for  the  employment  of  the  poor  to  decrease  the  real  funds  for 
"the  maintenance  of  labour  in  any  country,  aggravates  the  ab- 
surdity of  supposing  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  a  government 
to  find  employment  for  all  its  subjects,  however  fast  they  may 
"increase." 

It  is  strange  how  the  present  generation  begins  to  forget  the 
truths  that  were  clearly  seen  by  the  one  immediately  preceding. 
We  have  had  a  proof  of  this  in  the  late  agitation  for  Protection 
'Versus  Free  Trade.  And  on  November  5th,  1881,  there  wai 
auother  example  so  given  in  the  case  of  a  deputation  of  ratepayeri 
■of  Newington,  who  waited  on  Mr.  Dodson,  the  President  of  the 
Xocal  Government  Board,  to  ask  him  to  administer  out- door  re- 
lief instead  of  building  a  new  workhouse  at  Champion  Hill,  at  % 
cost  of  £200,000.  The  deputation,  which  actually  contained  a 
professor  of  political  economy,  Mr.  Thorold  Rogers,  urged  that 
the  system  of  the  workhouse  test  entailed  a  cost  of  7s.  a  week  to 
the  parish,  whereas,  if  persons  were  relieved  at  home,  8s.  or  4s. 
would  be  all  that  would  be  required.  Well  might  a  French  eco- 
•nomist  write  an  essay  upon  '*  things  that  are  seen,  and  things 
that  are  not  seen  "  ! 

Mr.  Dodson,  in  his  able  reply  to  this  deputation,  tried  to  teach 
again  the  lesson  taught  by  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners  in  1884, 
that  the  whole  object  and  system  of  the  Poor  Law  which  was  then 
•established  In  this  country  was,  that  it  should  be  strictly  admin- 
istered, with  a  view  simply  of  testing  and  checking  absolute  des- 
titution, and  no  means,  no  effectual  means,  had  been  devised,  of 
mo  testing  destitution,  except  by  offering  the  house :  and  just  in 


76  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

proportion  as  the  poor-law  was  strictly  administered,  so  in  pro- 
portion the  entrance  to  the  house  was  insisted  upon  as  the  con- 
dition of  relief.  In  the  case  of  out-door  relief  it  was  impossible- 
absolutely  to  test  the  case.  Out-door  relief  could  not  be  closely- 
watched.  They  could  not  tell,  when  a  man  received  relief,  that 
he  was  not  receiving  aid  from  other  sources,  that  he  was  not  earn- 
ing something  for  himself,  and  might  possibly,  if  he  were  left  to- 
his  own  resources,  earn  more.  This  was  a  system,  he  said,  which 
in  that  way  acted  as  a  check  upon  exertion  and  upon  provi- 
dence ;  and  he  need  not  say  that  anything  which  acted  as  a  check- 
on  these  could  not  result  but  in  the  increase  of  pauperism,  the 
demoralisation  of  the  working  classes,  and  in  increased  charges- 
upon  the  ratepayers.  Of  course,  he  knew  that  it  was  very  tempt- 
ing, when  a  case  came  before  them,  to  relieve  a  man  by  out-door 
relief.  They  might  give  him  Is.  6d.  and  a  loaf,  or  2s. ;  and  if 
they  brought  him  into  the  house  it  would  of  course  cost  4s.  or  5s., 
and  thus  the  ratepayers  would  not,  for  the  moment,  have  so  much 
to  pay.  But  the  system  of  the  workhouse  was  not  so  expensive- 
as  that,  for  we  knew  that  not  more  than  one  man  in  ten  would  go* 
into  the  house.  Where  ten  would  accept  out- door  relief,  they 
could  not  get  more  than  one  or  two  who  would  accept  in-door  re- 
lief. And,  besides,  they  must  further  remember  this ,  that  if  they 
increased  the  rates  by  this  system,  they  were  making  the  prudent- 
and  industrious  man,  who  maintained  himself  and  his  family  by 
his  own  labour,  support  the  idlers  and  vagrants  who  did  not- 
make  similar  exertions.  He  knew  how  tempting  it  was  to  wish 
to  save  the  money  of  the  ratepayers,  and  at  the  same  time  to- 
gratify  the  feelings  of  humanity  to  the  poor  by  giving  out-door 
relief,  since  it  often  appeared  hard  and  cruel  to  compel  people  to 
enter  the  workhouse,  and,  as  it  was  said,  to  *'  break  up  their 
homes."  But  he,  Mr.  Dodson,  reminded  his  hearers  that,  as 
guardians,  they  had  the  administration  of  the  ratepayers'  money^ 
and  not  the  administration  of  a  benevolent  fund.  They  were  not. 
administering  a  Charity,  but  were  the  stewards  for  the  ratepayers, 
and  were  bound  to  administer  the  Poor  Law  in  the  manner  which,, 
not  superficially  and  for  the  moment,  was  the  most  really  eco- 
nomical. The  workhouse  test  was  known  by  experience  to  be,  in 
the  long  run,  the  only  truly  economical  and  feasible  way  of  ad- 
ministering relief  to  the  destitute.  For  what,  he  asked,  was  the- 
whole  history  of  the  modern  English  Poor  Law  ?  What  was  the 
condition  of  England  before  1830,  when  that  law  was  loosely 
administered  ?  It  was  a  system  ruinous  to  the  indigent  classes^ 
and  destructive  to  the  ratepayers.  The  Poor  Law  Commissioners 
had  shown  that  the  only  way  in  which   the  people  could   be^ 


OF    THOMA&    R.    MALTHUS  77 

^aranteed  against  starvation  was  by  enforcing  the  workhouse 
test,  and  thus  avoiding  the  creation  of  a  pauper  class  too  numerous 
to  be  alleviated. 

It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  Mr.  Dodson  is  so  well  instructed 
in  the  affairs  of  the  office  in  which  he  holds  sway.  Doubtless, 
he  is  also  aware  of  the  grand  difiicnlty  which  opposes  all  State 
assistance  of  the  poor  at  their  own  houses,  and  which  consists  in 
the  utter  recklessness  still  so  prevalent  among  the  uneducated 
-classes  as  to  the  size  of  their  families.  To  give  out-door  relief  in 
the  present  state  of  public  opinion  would  merely  be  to  offer  a 
premium  upon  large  families,  and  this  could,  of  course,  only  re- 
sult in  early  death,  degradation  of  the  family,  and  a  relapse  into 
barbarism.  Even  in  Australia  it  has  been  found  possible  to  raise 
^ip  a  pauper  class  by  such  unwise  out-door  doles,  which  are  no 
«harity  at  all,  but  merely  a  means  to  degrade  and  enslave  the 
poorest  classes. 


^=^4.,^ 
^ 


78  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

CHAPTEK  X. 

WEALTH    AS    IT    AFFECTS    THE    POOR. 

rthe  seventh  chapter  of  book  III.  Mr.  Malthus  criticises  ait 
essay  of  Adam  Smith,  on  "  Increasing  Wealth  as  it  Affects- 
the  Condition  of  the  Poor."  The  professed  object  of  Adam 
Smith's  enquiry  ia  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  wealth  of 
nations.  **  There  is  another,  however,  perhaps  still  more  in- 
teresting (says  onr  author)  which  he  occasionally  mixes  with 
it.  the  causes  which  affect  the  happiness  and  comfort  of  the- 
lower  orders  of  society,  which  in  every  nation  forms  the  most 
numerous  class.  I  am  sufficiently  aware  of  the  near  connec- 
tion of  these  two  subjects,  and  that,  generally  speaking,  the- 
causes  which  contribute  to  increase  the  wealth  of  a  state  tend 
also  to  increase  the  happiness  of  the  lower  classes  of  the' 
people.  But  perhaps  Dr.  Smith  has  considered  these  two  in- 
quiries as  still  more  nearly  connected  than  they  really  are ; 
at  least  he  has  not  stopped  to  take  notice  of  those  instances, 
when  the  wealth  of  a  society  may  increase,  according  to  hi&^ 
definition  of  wealth,  without  having  a  proportional  tendency 
to  increase  the  comforts  of  the  labouring  part  of  it." 

Malthus  observes  that  the  comforts  of  the  labouring  poor 
must  necessarily  depend  upon  the  funds  destined  for  the 
maintenance  of  labour,  and  will  generally  be  in  proportion  to- 
the  rapidity  of  their  increase.  The  demand  for  labour,  which 
such  increase  occasions,  will  of  course  raise  the  value  of 
labour ;  and  till  the  additional  number  of  hands  required  are 
reared,  the  increased  funds  will  be  distributed  to  the  same 
number  of  persons  as  before,  and  therefore  every  labourer  will 
live  more  at  his  ease.  But  Adam  Smith  was  wrong  when  he 
represented  every  increase  of  the  revenue  or  stock  of  a  society,. 
as  a  proportional  increase  of  these  funds.  Such  surplus  stock 
or  revenue  will  indeed  always  be  considered  by  the  indivi- 
dual possessing  it,  as  an  additional  fund  from  which  he  may 
maintain  more  labour  ;  but  with  regard  to  the  whole  country, 
it  will  not  be  an  effectual  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  anr 
additional  number  of  labourers,  unless  part  of  it  be  conver- 
tible into  an  additional  quantity  of  provisions  ;  and  it  will  not 
be  so  convertible  when  the  increase  has  arisen  merely  from  the 
produce  of  labour,  and  not  from  the  produce  of  land.  A  dis- 
tinction may  in  this  case  occur  between  the  pumber  of  hands- 
which  the  stock  of  a  society  could  employ  and  the  number 
which  its  territory  can  maintain. 


OF  THOMAS  B.  MALTHU8.  79* 

"  Supposing  a  nation  for  a  course  of  years  to  add  what  it 
saved  from  its  yearly  revenue  to  its  manufacturing  capital 
solely,  and  not  to  its  capital  employed  on  land,  it  is  evident 
that  it  might  grow  richer  without  a  power  of  supporting  a 
greater  number  of  labourers,  and  therefore  without  any  in- 
crease in  the  real  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labour.  There 
would,  notwithstanding,  be  a  demand  for  labour,  from  the 
extent  of  manufacturing  capital.  This  demand  would  of 
course  raise  the  price  of  labour;  but  if  the  yearly  stock  of 
provisions  in  the  country  were  not  increasing  this  rise  would 
soon  turn  out  merely  nominal,  as  the  price  of  provisions  must 
necessarily  rise  with  it  " 

The  question  is  how  far  wealth  increasing  in  this  way  has 
a  tendency  to  better  the  condition  of  the  labouring  poor.  "It 
is  a  self-evident  proposition,  that  any  general  advance  in  the 
price  of  labour,  the  stock  of  provisions  remaining  the  same, 
can  only  be  a  nominal  advance,  as  it  must  shortly  be  followed 
by  a  proportional  rise  in  provisions.  Tlie  increase  in  the  price 
of  labour  which  we  have  supposed,  would  have  no  permanent 
effect  therefore  in  giving  to  the  labouring  poor  a  greater 
command  over  the  necessaries  of  life.  In  this  respect  they 
would  be  nearly  in  the  same  state  as  before.  In  some  other 
respects  they  would  be  in  a  worse  state.  A  greater  portion  of 
them  would  be  employed  in  manufactures,  and  a  smaller 
portion  in  agriculture.  (The  present  condition  of  England 
in  1882.)  And  this  exchange  of  profession  will  be  allowed, 
I  think,  by  all  to  be  very  unfavourable  to  health,  an  essen- 
tial ingredient  to  happiness,  and  to  be  further  disadvantageous 
on  account  of  the  greater  uncertainty  of  manufacturing  labour, 
arising  from  the  capricious  tastes  of  man,  the  accidents  of 
war,  and  other  causes  which  occasionally  produce  very  severe 
distress  among  the  lower  classes  of  society." 

Mr.  Malthus  then  feelingly  alludes  to  the  miserable  con- 
dition of  the  poor  young  operatives  in  Manchester  in  his 
day,  and  to  the  destruction  of  the  comforts  of  the  family  so 
often  caused  by  the  women  becoming  so  frequently  mere 
hands  in  mills  and  quite  unacquainted  with  any  household 
work.  "  The  females  are  wholly  uninstructed  in  sewing, 
knitting,  and  other  domestic  affairs,  requisite  to  make  them 
notable  and  frnsjal  wives  and  mothers.  This  is  a  very  great 
misfortune  to  them  and  to  the  public,  as  is  sadly  proved  by  a  . 
comparison  of  the  families  of  labourers  in  husbandry,  and 
those  in  manufactures   in  general.     In  the  former  we  meet 


:80  THE  LIFE  AND   WKI TINGS 

with  neatness,  cleanliness,  and  comfart:  in  the  latter  with 
filth,  rags,  and  poverty,  although  their  wages  may  be  nearly 
double  those  of  the  husbandman.  In  addition  to  these  evils 
we  all  know  how  subject  particular  manufactures  are  to  fail, 
from  the  caprice  of  taste,  or  the  accident  of  war.  The 
weavers  of  Spitalfield  were  plunged  into  the  most  severe  dis- 
tress by  the  fashion  of  muslins  instead  of  silks ;  and  numbers 
of  the  workmen  of  Sheffield  and  Birmingham  were  for  a 
time  thrown  out  of  employment,  from  the  adoption  of  shoe 
strings  and  covered  buttons,  instead  of  buckles  and  metal 
buttons.  Under  such  circumstances,  unless  the  increase  of  the 
riches  of  a  country  from  manufactures  <<ives  the  lower  classes 
4)f  the  society,  on  an  average,  a  decided h'  greater  command 
over  the  necessaries  and  conveniences  of  life,  it  will  not 
Appear  that  their  condition  is  improved." 

Mr.  Malthus  continues  :  **  It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  the 
advance  in  the  price  of  provisions  will  immediately  turn 
some  additional  capital  into  the  channel  of  agriculture,  and 
thus  occasion  a  much  greater  produce.  But  from  experience 
it  appears  that  this  is  au  effect  which  sometimes  follows 
very  slowly,  particularly  if  heavy  taxes  that  affect  agricul- 
tural industry,  and  an  advance  in  the  price  of  labour,  had 
preceded  the  advance  in  the  price  of  provisions.  It  may  also 
be  said,  that  the  additional  capital  of  the  nation  would 
enable  it  to  import  provisions  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of 
those  whom  its  stock  could  employ.  A  small  country  with  a 
large  navy,  and  great  accommodation  for  'nland  carriage,  may 
indeed  import  and  distribute  an  effectual  quantity  of  pro- 
visions ;  but  in  large  landed  nations,  if  they  may  be  so-called, 
an  importation  adequate  at  all  times  to  the  demand  is  scarcely 
possible." 

In  1881  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Islands  had  to  im- 
port food  consisting  of  live  and  dead  meat,  butter,  eggs,  flour, 
and  wheat,  &c.,  at  an  expense  of  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  thirty-two  millions  sterling,  inclusive  of  sugar,  one  of  the 
requisites  of  nutrition,  or  at  the  cost  of  one  hundred  and 
eight  millions  sterling  without  sugar.  And  yet  the  price  of 
butter  was  about  Is.  6d.  the  pound  and  meat  about  9d.  a 
pound  in  London,  whilst  milk  sold  for  5d.  the  quart.  Thus 
we  see  how  true  the  words  of  the  great  writer  on  population 
were,  even  writing  before  the  days  of  steam  and  electric 
telegraphs,  improvements  in  the  way  of  obtaining  food  sup- 
plies that  might  easily'  have  made  food  as  cheap  here  as  in 
New  Zealand,  had  it  not  been  for  the  excessive  birth-rat« 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  81 

that  has  been  going  on  for  the  whole  of  this  centurj  in  the 
United  Kingdom. 

Mr.  Malthuts  points  out  that  a  nation  which  from  its  ex- 
tent and  population  must  necessarily  support  the  greater  part 
of  its  population  on  the  produce  of  its  own  soil,  but  which 
yet,  in  average  years,  draws  a  small  portion  of  its  corn 
from  abroad,  is  in  a  more  precarious  position  with  regard  to 
the  constancy  of  its  supplies,  than  such  states  as  draw  almost 
the  whole  of  their  provisions  from  other  countries.  A  nation 
possessed  of  a  large  territory  is  unavoidably  subject  to  this  un- 
certainty of  its  means  of  subsistence,  when  the  commercial 
part  of  its  population  is  either  equal  to,  or  has  increased  beyond 
the  surplus  produce  of  its  cultivators.  ''No  reserve  being  in 
these  cases  left  in  exportation,  the  full  effect  of  every  deficiency 
from  unfavorable  seasons  must  necessarily  be  felt ;  and,  although 
the  riches  of  such  a  country  may  enable  it  for  a  certain  period 
to  continue  raising  the  nominal  rate  of  wages,  so  as  to  give  the 
lower  classes  of  the  society  a  power  of  purchasing  imported 
corn  at  a  high  price ;  yet,  a  a  sudden  demand  can  very  seldom 
be  fully  answered,  the  competition  in  the  market  will  in- 
variably raise  the  price  of  provisions  in  full  proportion  to  the 
advance  in  the  price  of  labor;  the  lower  classes  will  be  but 
little  relieved,  and  the  dearth  will  operate  severely  throughout 
all  the  ranks  of  society. 

According  to  the  natural  order  of  things,  years  of  scarcity 
must  occasionally  recur  in  all  landed  nations.  They  ought 
always  therefore  to  enter  into  our  consideration;  and  the 
prosperity  of  any  country  ma}'  justly  be  considered  as  pre- 
carious, in  which  the  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labour  are 
liable  to  great  and  sudden  fluctuations  from  every  unfavourable 
variation  in  the  seasons. 

"  But  putting  for  the  present,  years  of  scarcity  out  of  the 
question.  When  the  commercial  population  of  any  country 
increa.ses  so  much  beyond  the  surplus  produce  of  the  cultivators, 
that  the  demand  for  imported  corn  is  not  easily  supplied,  and 
the  price  rises  in  proportion  to  the  rate  of  wages,  no  further 
increase  of  riches  will  have  any  tendency  to  give  the  laborer  a 
greater  command  over  the  necessaries  of  life.  In  the  progress 
of  wealth  this  will  naturally  take  place,  either  from  the  large- 
ness of  the  supply  wanted,  the  increased  distance  from  which 
it  is  brought,  and  consequently,  the  increased  expense  of  im- 
portation ;  the  greater  consumption  of  it  in  the  countries  in 
which  it   is   usually  purchased,  or,   what   must  unavoidably 


82  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

happen,  the  necessity  of  a  greater  distance  of  inland  carriage 
in  these  countries.  Such  a  nation,  by  increasing  industry  in 
the  improvement  of  machinery,  may  still  go  on  increasing  the 
yearly  quantity  of  its  manufactured  produce ;  but  its  funds  for 
the  maintenance  of  labor,  and  consequently  its  population,  will 
be  perfectly  stationary.  This  point  is  the  natural  limit  to  the 
population  of  all  commercial  states.  In  countries  at  a  great 
distance  from  this  limit,  an  effect  approaching  to  what  has  been 
here  described  will  take  place,  whenever  the  march  of  com- 
merce and  manufactures  is  more  rapid  than  that  of  agriculture.'* 

Malthus  takes  China  as  an  example,  that  every  increase  in 
the  stock  or  revenue  of  a  nation  cannot  be  considered  as  an 
increase  of  the  real  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labor,  and 
therefore  cannot  have  the  same  good  effect  upon  the  condition 
of  the  poor.  China,  as  Adam  Smith  remarked,  has  probably 
long  been  as  rich  as  the  nature  of  her  laws  and  institutions  will 
admit ;  although,  with  other  laws  and  institutions,  and  on  the 
supposition  of  unshackled  foreign  commerce,  she  might  still  be 
richer,  yet,  the  question  is,  would  such  an  increase  of  wealth 
be  an  increase  of  the  real  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labor, 
and  consequently  tend  to  place  the  lower  classes  in  China  in  a 
state  of  greater  plenty  ? 

Malthus  contends  that  if  trade  and  foreign  commerce  were 
held  in  great  honour  in  China,  it  is  evident  that,  from  the  great 
number  of  laborers,  and  the  cheapness  of  labor,  she  might  work 
up  manufactures  for  foreign  sale  to  an  immense  amount.  It  is 
equally  evident,  that  from  the  great  bulk  of  provisions,  and 
the  amazing  extent  of  her  inland  territory,  she  could  not  in 
Tseturn  import  such  a  quantity  as  would  be  any  sensible  addition 
to  the  annual  stock  of  subsistence  in  the  country.  "Her 
immense  amount  of  manufactui  es  therefore,  she  would  exchange 
chiefly  for  luxuries  collected  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  At 
present  it  appears  that  no  labor  whatever  is  spared  in  the 
production  of  food.  The  country  is  rather  over-peopled  in 
proportion  to  what  its  stock  can  employ,  and  labor  is  therefore 
so  abundant  that  no  pains  are  taken  to  abridge  it.  The  con- 
sequence of  this  is  probably  the  greatest  production  of  food  that 
the  soil  can  possibly  afford ;  for  it  will  be  generally  observed, 
that  processes  for  abridging  agricultural  labor,  though  they  may 
enable  a  farmer  to  bring  a  certain  quantity  of  grain  cheaper  to 
market,  tend  rather  to  diminish,  than  increase  the  whole 
produce.  An  immense  capital  could  not  be  employed  in  China 
in  preparing^  manufactures  for  foreign  trade,  without  taking  off 
60  man}'  laborers  from  agriculture,  as  to  alter  this  state  of 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  83 

things,  and  in  some  degree,  to  diminish  the  produce  of  the 
country.  The  demand  for  manufacturing  laborers  would 
naturally  raise  the  price  of  labor  ;  but,  as  the  quantity  of  sub- 
sistence would  not  be  increased,  the  price  of  provisions  would 
keep  pace  with  it,  or  even  more  than  keep  pace  with  it,  if  the 
quantity  of  provisions  were  really  decreasing.  The  country 
would,  however,  be  evidently  advancing  in  wealth.  The  ex- 
changeable value  of  the  annual  produce  of  its  land  and  labor 
would  be  annually  augmented  ;  yet  the  real  funds  for  the 
maintenance  of  labor  would  be  stationary,  or  even  declining; 
and  consequently,  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  nation  would 
tend  rather  to  depress  than  to  raise  the  condition  of  the  poor. 
With  regard  to  the  command  over  the  necessaries  of  life,  they 
would  be  in  the  same,  or  rather  worse  state  than  before,  and  a 
great  part  of  them  would  have  exchanged  the  healthy  labor  of 
agriculture,  for  the  unhealthy  occupations  of  manufacturing 
industry." 

The  observations  of  the  greatest  living  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, Mr.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  of  late  years,  have  frequently 
pointed  out  to  us  how  very  unfair  a  proportion  of  the  increasing 
wealth  of  this  country  has  been  absorbed  by  the  possessors  of  cap- 
ital, as  compared  with  that  by  the  recipients  of  wages.  It  may 
indeed  be  said,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  that  owing  to 
the  way  in  which  population  has  increased  in  this  century  in 
this  country,  pari  passu  with  the  increase  of  the  wealth  of  the 
nation,  it  is  doubtful  whether  all  the  improvements  in 
manufactures  and  in  instruments  for  abbreviating  manual  toil 
have  taken  one  hour's  work  from  the  shoulders  of  the  working 
classes. 

"The  condition  of  the  poor  in  China,"  says  Malthus,  '^is 
indeed  very  miserable  at  present,  but  this  is  not  owing  to  their 
want  of  foreign  commerce,  but  to  their  extreme  tendency  to 
marriage  and  increase ;  and  if  this  tendency  were  to  continue 
the  same,  the  only  way  in  which  the  introduction  of  a  greater 
number  of  manufacturers  could  possibly  make  the  lower  classes 
of  people  richer,  would  be  by  increasing  the  mortality  among 
them,  which  is  ceitainly  not  a  very  desirable  mode  of  growing 
rich."  This  argument  of  our  author  might  convince  both  the 
fair  traders  and  the  free  traders  of  this  day,  that  neither  free 
trade,  nor  protection,  are  panaceas  against  starvation  among  the 
poorest  classes,  and  make  them  learn  the  lesson  that  a  email 
family  system  alone  can  solve  the   fundamental  question  of 


84  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

man's  destiny — how  to  make  the  proportion  of  months  to  food 
most  favorable. 

The  argument  perhaps  appears  clearer  when  applied  to- 
China,  because  it  is  generally  allowed  that  its  wealth  has  been 
long  stationary,  and  its  soil  cultivated  nearly  to  the  utmost. 
AVith  regard  to  any  other  country  it  might  always  be  a  matter 
of  dispute,  at  whicl3  of  the  two  periods  compared  wealth  was 
increasing  the  fastest,  for  Adam  Smith,  and  others  of  his- 
followers  think  that  the  condition  of  the  poor  depends  on  the 
rapidity  of  the  increase  of  wealth  at  any  particular  epoch. 
Malthus  to  this  replit^s  that:  '*It  is  evident  that  two  nations- 
might  increase  exactly  with  the  same  rapidity  in  the  exchange- 
able value  of  the  annual  products  of  their  land  and  labor;  yet, 
if  one  had  applied  itself  chiefly  to  agriculture,  and  the  other 
chiefly  to  commerce,  the  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  labor,, 
and  consequently  the  effect  of  the  increase  of  wealth  in  each 
nation,  would  be  extremely  different.  In  that  which  had 
applied  itself  chiefly  to  agriculture,  the  poor  would  live  in 
greater  plenty,  and  population  vvould  rapidly  increase.  In 
that  which  had  applied  itself  chiefly  to  commerce  the  poor 
would  be  comparatively  but  little  benefited,  and  consequently, 
population  would  either  be  stationary,  or  increase  very  slowly."' 
"  The  condition,"  says  IMalthus,  "  of  the  laboring  poor,  suppos- 
ing their  habits  to  remain  the  same,  cannot  be  very  essentially 
improved,  but  by  giving  them  a  greater  command  over  the 
means  of  subsistence.  But  any  advantage  of  this  kind  must 
from  its  nature  be  temporary,  and  is  therefore  really  of  less 
/alue  to  them  than  any  permanent  change  in  their  habits.  But 
manufactures,  by  inspiring  a  taste  for  comforts,  tend  to  pro- 
mote a  fav(M-able  change  in  these  habits,  and  in  this  way 
perhaps  c«mnterbalance  all  their  disadvantages.  The  labor- 
ing classes  of  society,  in  nations  merely  agricultural,  are- 
generally  on  The  whole  poorer  than  in  manufacturing  nations, 
tbougli  less  subject  to  those  occasional  variations  which  among 
manufacturers  often  produce  the  most  severe  distress. 

There  are  two  chapieis  in  Malthus's  second  volume  devoted 
to  the  cousideraticm  of  the  Agricultural  and  Commercial 
Systems  about  which  so  much  was  written  by  his  contem- 
poraries. Mr.  IMakhus  says  in  Chapter  VIII.  that  there  are 
none  of  the  definitions  of  the  wealth  of  a  state  that  are  not 
liable  to  some  objections.  If  the  gross  produce  <>f  the  land  be 
taken  as  indicating  wealth,  it  is  clear  that  this  may  increase- 
very  rapidly  whilst  the  nation  is  very  poor,  and,  wealth  again 
may  increase   without  tending  to  increase  the  funds  for  the' 


OF  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  85 

'maintenance  ot  labor  and  population.  "  Whichever  of  thehe 
definitions  is  adopted,  the  position  of  the  economists  will  remain 
"true,  that  the  ssurphis  jirodnce  of  the  cultivators  is  the  ^reat 
fund  which  ultimately  pays  all  not  employed  in  the  land. 
Thronghout  the  whole  world  the  number  of  manufacturers, 
of  proprietors,  and  of  persons  engaged  in  the  various  civil  and 
mih't  ;ry  professions  must  be  exactly  proportional  to  the  surplus 
) -rod lice,  and  cnnnot  in  the  natme  of  things  increase  beyond 
it.  If  the  earth  had  been  so  niggardlj^  of  her  pi-odiice  as  to 
oblige  all  her  inhabitants  to  labor  for  it,  no  manufacturer  or 
idle  persons  could  ever  have  existe  1.  Bnt  her  first  intercourse 
with  man  was  a  voluntary  piesent,  not  ver}'  large  indeed,  but 
suflftcient  as  a  fund  for  his  subsistence,  till  by  the  proper 
•exercise  of  his  faculties  he  could  produce  a  greater.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  laboiand  ingenuity  of  man  increased,  again,  the 
land  has  increased  this  surjjliis  produce;  leisure  has  been  given 
to  a  greater  number  of  ])ersons  to  employ  themselves  in  all  the 
inventions  which  embellish  civilised  life  ;  and,  although  in  its 
tui-n,  the  desire  to  profit  by  these  inventions  has  greatly  con- 
tributed to  stimulate  the  cultivators  to  increase  their  surplus 
produce ;  yet  the  order  of  precedence  is  clearly  the  surplus 
produce,  because  the  funds  for  the  subsistence  of  the  manu^ 
facturer  must  be  advanced  to  him  before  he  can  complete  his 
work." 

''  In  the  history  of  the  world,"  says  Malthus,  "the  nations 
whose  wealth  has  been  derived  principally  from  manufactures 
and  commerce,  have  been  perfectly  ephemeral  beings,  compared 
with  those  whose  wealth  has  been  agiiculture.  It  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  a  state  which  subsists  upon  a  revenue 
furnished  by  other  countries,  must  be  infinitely  more  exposed 
to  all  the  accidents  of  time  and  chance,  than  one  which  pro- 
duces its  own.  No  error  is  more  frequent  than  that  of  mistaking 
effects  for  causes.  We  are  so  blinded  by  the  shrewdness  of 
■commerce  and  manufactures,  as  to  believe  that  they  are  almost 
the  sole  cause  of  the  wealth,  power,  and  prospeiity  of  England  ; 
but  perhaps  they  may  be  more  justly  considered  as  the  con- 
sequence, than  the  cause  of  the  wealth.  According  to  the  de- 
finition of  the  economists,  which  considers  only  the  produce  of 
land,  Englam^  is  the  richest  country  in  Europe,  in  proportion 
to  her  size.  Her  system  of  agriculture  is  beyond  comparison 
better,  aiid  consequently,  her  surplus  produce  is  more  con- 
siderable. France  is  very  greatly  superior  to  England  in 
•extent  of  territory  and  population ;  but  when  the  surplus 
produce,  or  disposable  revenue  of  the  two  nations  are  com- 


^6  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

pared,  the  superiority  of  France  almost  vanishes.  According 
to  the  returns  lately  made  of  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales,  it  appears  that  the  number  of  persons  employed  in 
agriculture  is  considerably  less  than  a  fifth  part  of  the  whole.'^ 

This  was  written  by  Malthus  in  1806,  and  it  is  curious  to 
contrast  the  state  of  matters  which  now  exists  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  In  1881  she  consumed  1,740,000  tons 
of  meat,  and  only  produced  1,090,000  of  these  herself.  She 
also  consumed  607  millions  of  bushels  of  grain,  and  pro- 
duced only  322  millions  of  these,  so  that,  although  her  agri- 
cultural skill  has  greatly  increased  since  the  days  of  Malthus,. 
she  impoiis  nearly  half  of  her  grain  and  one-third  of  her  meat 
supplies. 

Malthus  was  of  opinion  that  the  National  Debt  of  England 
was  chiefly  injurious  because  it  absorbed  the  redundancy  of 
commercial  capital  and  kept  up  the  rate  of  interest,  thus  pre- 
venting capital  from  overflowing  upon  the  soil.  He  thought 
that  thus  a  large  mortgage  had  been  established  on  the  lands 
of  England,  the  interest  of  which  was  drawn  from  the  pay- 
ment of  productive  labor,  and  dedicated  to  the  support  of  idle 
consumers.  "  It  must  be  allowed,  therefore,  upon  the  whole, 
that  our  commerce  heis  not  done  so  much  for  our  agriculture, 
as  our  agriculture  has  done  for  our  commerce ;  and  that  the 
improved  system  of  cultivation  which  has  taken  place,  in  spite 
of  considerable  discouragements,  creates  yearly  a  surplus  produce 
which  enables  the  country,  with  but  little  assistance,  to  sup- 
port so  vast  a  body  of  people  engaged  in  pursuits  unconnected 
with  the  land." 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  England,  saya 
our  author,  was  genuinely,  and  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  econ- 
omists, an  agricultural  nation.  With  London  containing  a 
population  of  more  than  four  millions,  and  our  other  immense 
cities,  this  description  of  England  is  now  quite  out  of  place. 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  says  Malthus,  we- 
were  genuinely,  and  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  economists,. 
an  agricultural  nation.  ''  We  have  now,  however,  slipped  out 
of  the  agricultural  system  into  a  state  in  which  the  commer- 
cial system  clearly  predominates, ;  and  there  is  but  too  much 
reason  to  fear  that  even  our  consumers  and  manufacturers  will, 
ultimately  feel  the  disadvantage  of  the  change.  When  a. 
country  in  average  years  grows  more  wheat  than  it  consumes, 
and  is  in  the  habit  of  exporting  a  part  of  it,  those  great  varia- 
tions of  price  which  from  the  competition  of  commercial 
wealth,  often  produce  lasting  effects,  cannot  occur  to  the  same* 


OF    THOMAS    B.    MALTHUS  87 

extent.  The  wages  of  labour  can  never  rise  very  much  above 
the  common  price  in  other  com tnercial  countries ;  and  under 
such  circumstances  England  would  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
the  fullest  and  most  open  competition." 

Our  author  thinks  (chap.  ix.  book  iii.)  that  if  we  were  to 
lower  the  price  of  labour  by  encouraging  the  import  of  foreign 
corn,  we  should  probably  aggravate  our  evils.  The  decline  in 
our  agriculture  would  be  certain.  The  British  grower  could 
not,  in  his  own  markets,  stand  the  competition  of  foreign 
growers,  in  average  years.  Arable  lands  of  a  moderate  quality 
would  hardly  pay  the  expenses  of  cultivation.  Rich  soils  alone 
would  yield  a  rent.  Round  our  towns  the  appearance  would 
be  the  same  as  usual  ;  but  in  the  interior  of  the  country  much 
of  the  land  would  be  neglected,  and  almost  universally,  where 
it  was  practicable,  pasture  would  take  the  place  of  tillage. 
This  state  of  things  would  continue  till  the  equilibrium  was 
restored,  either  by  the  fall  of  British  rent  and  wages,  or  an 
advance  in  foreign  corn,  or,  what  is  more  probable,  by  the 
union  of  both  causes.  But  a  period  would  have  elapsed  of 
considerable  relative  encouragement  to  manufactures,  and  re- 
lative discouragement  to  agriculture.  A  certain  portion  of 
capital  would  be  taken  from  the  land,  and  when  the  equilib- 
rium was  at  length  restored,  the  nation  would  probably  be 
found  dependent  upon  foreign  supplies  for  a  great  portion  of 
its  subsistence :  and  unless  some  particular  cause  were  to 
occasion  a  foreign  demand  greater  than  the  home  demand,  its 
independence,  in  this  respect,  would  not  be  recovered.  In  the 
natural  course  of  things,  a  country  which  depends  for  a  con- 
siderable part  of  its  supply  of  corn  upon  its  poorer  neighbours 
may  expect  to  see  this  supply  gradually  diminish,  as  those 
countries  increase  in  riches  and  population,  and  have  less  sur- 
plus produce  to  spare. 

This  last  remark  of  Malthus  has  been  verified  of  late  years 
in  Europe,  for  countries  from  which  we  used  some  few  years 
back  to  receive  a  considerable  amount  of  our  supplies  of  meat 
and  grain,  have  now  become  competitors  with  us  for  supplies 
of  these  articles  from  the  United  States  and  Australasia.  And 
for  other  countries  his  further  remark  holds  true,  that  the 
political  relations  of  such  a  country  may  expose  it,  during  a 
war,  to  have  that  part  of  its  supply  of  provisions  which  it  de- 
rives from  foreign  states  suddenly  stopped  or  greatly  di- 
minished ;  an  event  which  could  not  take  place  without  pro- 
ducing the  most  calamitous  effects.  "A  nation,"  he  continues, 
''in  which  agrioidtural  wealth  predominates,  though  it  may 


88  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

not  produce  at  home  such  a  surplus  of  luxuries  and  con- 
veniences as  the  commercial  nation,  and  may  therefore  be  ex- 
posed possibly  to  some  want  of  these  commodities,  has,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  surplus  of  that  article  which  is  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  whole  state,  and  is  therefore  secure  from 
want  in  what  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  And  if  we  cannot 
be  so  sure  of  the  supply  of  what  we  derive  from  others,  as  of 
what  we  produce  at  home,  it  seems  to  be  an  advantageous 
policy  in  a  nation  whose  territory  will  allow  of  it,  to  secure  a 
surplus  of  that  commodity,  a  deficiency  of  which  would  strike 
most  deeply  at  its  happiness  and  prosperity." 

Malthus  held  that  there  is  no  branch  of  trade  more  pro- 
fitable to  a  country,  even  in  a  commercial  point  of  view, 
than  the  sale  of  rude  produce.  And  here  he  seems  to  have 
disagreed  with  Adam  Smith's  views.  That  illustrious  writer 
on  Wealth  observes  that  a  trading  and  manufacturing  country 
exports  what  can  subsist  and  accommodate  but  very  few,  and 
imports  the  subsistence  and  accommodation  of  a  great  number. 
The  other  exports  the  subsistence  and  accommodation  of  a 
great  number,  and  imports  that  of  a  very  few  only.  The  in- 
habitants in  the  one  must  enjoy,  said  Adam  Smith,  a  much 
greater  quantity  of  subt^istence  than  what  their  own  land,  in 
the  actual  state  of  cultivation,  could  afford.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  other  must  always  enjoy  a  much  smaller  quantity, 

Malthus  demurs  to  much  of  this  argument  ef  Adam  Smith. 
For,  says  he,  ^M hough  the  manufacturing  nation  may  export  a 
commodity  which,  in  its  actual  shape,  can  only  subsist  and 
accommodate  a  very  few,  yet  it  must  be  recollected  that  in 
order  to  prepare  this  commodity  for  exportation,  a  considerable 
part  of  the  revenue  of  the  country  has  been  employed  in  sub- 
sisting and  accommodating  a  great  number  of  workmen.  And 
with  regard  to  the  subsistence  and  accommodation  which  the 
other  nation  exports,  whether  it  be  of  a  great  or  a  small 
number,  it  is  certainly  no  more  than  sufficient  to  replace  the 
subsistence  that  has  been  consumed  in  the  manufacturing 
nation,  together  with  the  profits  of  the  master  manufacturer 
and  merchant,  which  probably,  are  not  so  great  as  the  profits 
of  the  farmer  and  the  merchant  in  the  agricultural  nation ; 
and,  though  it  may  be  true  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  manu- 
facturing nation  enjoy  a  greater  quantity  of  subsistence  than 
what  their  own  lands  in  the  actual  state  of  their  cultivation 
could  afford,  yet  an  inference  in  favour  of  the  manufacturing 
system  bj-  no  means  follows,  because  the  adoption  of  the  one 
or  the  other  system  will  make  the  greatest  difference  in  their 


or  THOMAS  B.  MALTHUa.  99 

aotnal  state  of  cnltivation.  If,  during  the  course  of  a  oentnrfy 
"two  landed  nations  were  to  pursue  these  two  different  systemi, 
that  is,  if  one  of  them  were  regularly  to  export  manufacture 
and  import  subsistence,  and  the  other  to  export  subsistence  and 
import  manufacture,  there  would  be  no  comparison  at  the  end 
of  the  period  between  the  state  of  cultivation  in  the  two 
countries;  and  no  doubt  could  rationally  be  entertained  that 
the  country  which  exported  its  raw  produce  would  be  able  to 
subsist  and  accommodate  a  muoh  larger  population  than  the 
other." 

It  is  a  matter,  says  our  author,  of  very  little  comparative 
importance,  whether  we  are  fully  supplied  with  broadcloth, 
linens,  and  muslins,  or  even  with  tea,  sugar,  and  coffee,  and  no 
rational  politician  therefore  would  think  of  proposing  a  bounty 
on  such  commodities.  "But  it  is  certainly  a  matter  of  the 
very  highest  importance,  whether  we  are  fully  supplied  with 
food ;  and  if  a  bounty  would  produce  such  a  supply,  the  most 
liberal  economist  might  be  justified  in  proposing  it,  considering 
food  as  a  commodity  distinct  from  all  others,  and  pre-eminentlj 
Talnabl©.'* 


«f4^^^^ 


90  fHE  LIFE  A14D  WKIZIN03 


CHAPTER  XI. 


IN  Chapter  X.  Mr.  Malthus  treats  of  bounties  on  the  expor- 
tation of  corn.  He  sets  out  by  observing  that  according- 
to  the  general  principles  of  political  economy,  it  cannot  be- 
doubted,  that  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  civilised  world  that 
each  nation  should  purchase  its  commodities  wherever  they 
can  be  had  the  cheapest. 

"  During  the  seventeenth  century,  and  indeed  the  whole 
period  of  our  history  previous  to  it,  the  prices  of  wheat  were 
subject  to  great  fluctuations,  and  the  average  price  was  very 
high.  For  fifty  years  before  the  year  1700,  the  average  price 
of  wheat  per  quarter  was  £3  Os.  lid.,  and  before  1650  it  was 
£6  8s.  lOd.  From  the  time  of  the  completion  of  the  corn 
laws  in  1700  and  1706,  the  prices  became  extraordinarily 
steady,  and  the  average  price  for  forty  years  previous  to  the- 
year  1750,  sunk  as  low  as  £1  16s.  per  quarter.  This  was  the- 
period  of  our  greatest  exportations.  In  1757  the  laws  were 
suspended,  and  in  1773  they  were  totally  altered.  The  exports 
of  corn  have  since  been  regularly  decreasing,  and  the  imports 
increasing.  The  average  price  of  wheat  for  the  forty  years 
ending  in  1800,  was  £2  9s.  5d.,  and  for  the  last  five  years  of 
this  period  £3  6s.  6d.  During  this  last  term  the  balance  of 
the  imports  of  all  sorts  of  grain  is  estimated  at  2,938,357." 

Mr.  Malthus  observes  that  it  is  totally  contrary  to  the  habits 
and  practice  of  farmers  to  save  the  superfluity  of  six  or  seven 
years.  Great  practical  inconvenience  generally  attends  the 
keeping  of  so  large  a  reserved  store.  Difficulties  often  occur 
from  a  want  of  proper  accommodation  for  it.  It  is  at  all  times 
liable  to  damage  from  vermin  and  other  causes.  When  very 
large  it  is  apt  to  be  viewed  with  a  jealous  and  grudging  eye 
by  the  common  people.  And  in  general,  the  farmer  may 
either  not  be  able  to  remain  so  long  without  the  returns,  or 
may  not  be  willing  to  employ  so  considerable  a  capital  in  a 
way  in  which  the  returns  must  necessarily  be  distant  and 
precarious. 

Mr.  Malthus  was  in  favour  of  a  bounty  on  the  exportation  of 
corn,  because  the  effect  of  such  a  bounty  was  to  lepress  slightly 
the  iuoreaae  ^i  population  in  years  of  plenty,  whilst  it  en- 


OF    THOMAS   R.    MALTHU8  91 

oonraged  it  comparatively  in  years  of  scarcity.  This  effect,  he 
maintained,  was  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  which  could 
possibly  occur  to  a  society,  and  contributed  more  to  the 
happiness  of  the  labouring  poor  than  could  easily  be  conceived 
by  those  who  had  not  deeply  considered  the  subject.  "  In 
the  whole  compass  of  human  events,"  he  says,  "I  doubt  if  there 
be  a  more  fruitful  source  of  misery,  or  one  more  invariably 
productive  of  disastrous  consequences,  than  a  sudden  start  of 
population  from  two  or  three  years  of  plenty,  which  must 
necessarily  be  repressed  on  the  first  return  of  scarcity,  or  even 
of  average  crops."  From  1637  to  1700,  both  inclusive,  the 
average  price  of  corn,  according  to  Adam  Smith,  was  £2  lis.; 
yet  in  1681  the  growing  price  was  only  £1  8s.  This  high 
average  price,  according  to  Malthus,  would  not  proportionally 
encourage  the  cultivation  of  corn.  Though  the  farmer  might 
feel  very  sanguine  during  one  or  two  years  of  high  price,  and 
project  many  improvements,  yet  the  glut  in  the  market  which 
would  follow,  would  depress  him  in  the  same  degree,  and  de- 
stroy all  his  projects.  Sometimes,  indeed,  a  year  of  high 
prices  really  tends  to  impoverish  the  land,  and  prepare  the 
way  for  future  scarcity. 

In  a  foot-note  in  page  264,  Chapter  X.,  Mr.  Malthus  makes 
the  remark  that,  '*  On  account  of  the  tendency  of  population 
to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  means  of  subsistence,  it  had 
been  supposed  by  some  that  there  would  always  be  a  sufficient 
demand  at  home  for  any  quantity  of  corn  which  could  be 
grown.  But  this  is  an  error.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  if 
the  farmers  could  gradually  increase  their  growth  of  corn  to- 
any  extent,  and  could  sell  it  sufficiently  cheap,  a  population 
would  arrive  at  home  to  demand  the  whole  of  it.  But  in  this^ 
case,  the  great  increase  of  demand  arises  solely  from  the  cheap- 
ness, and  must  therefore  be  totally  of  a  different  nature  from 
such  a  demand  as,  in  the  actual  circumstances  of  this  country, 
would  encourage  an  increased  supply.  If  the  makers  of  super- 
fine broadcloth  would  sell  their  commodity  for  a  shilling  a 
yard,  instead  of  a  guinea,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  de- 
mand would  increase  more  than  tenfold,  but  the  certainty  of 
such  an  increase  of  demand,  in  such  a  case,  would  have  no 
tendency  whatever,  in  the  actual  circumstances  of  any  known 
country,  to  encourage  the  manufacture  of  broad  cloths." 

In  page  267  Mr.  Malthus  adverts  to  what  has  recently  been 
commented  upon  by  a  great  French  statistician,  Mr.  Maurice 
Block,  viz.  :  the  danger  of  a  country  becoming  too  dependent 
on  others  for  its  supplies  of  food.     "  A  rich  and  oommerciai 


•^2  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

nation  is  by  the  natural  course  of  things  led  more  to  pasture 
than  to  tillage,  and  is  tempted  to  become  daily  moie  dependent 
upon  others  for  its  supplies  of  corn.  If  all  the  nations  of 
Europe  could  be  considered  as  one  great  country,  and  if  any 
one  state  could  be  as  sure  of  its  supplies  from  others,  as  the 
pasture  district  of  a  particular  state  are  from  the  corn  dis- 
tricts in  their  neighbourhood,  there  would  be  no  harm  in  this 
dependence,  and  no  person  would  think  of  proposing  corn 
laws.  But  can  we  safely  consider  Europe  in  this  light?  The 
fortunate  condition  of  this  country,  and  the  excellence  of  its 
laws  and  government,  exempt  it.  above  any  other  nation,  from 
foreign  invasion  and  domestic  tumult,  and  it  is  a  pardonable 
love  for  one's  country,  which  under  such  circumstances  pro- 
duces an  unwillingness  to  expose  it,  in  so  important  a  point  as 
the  supply  of  its  principal  food,  to  share  in  the  dangers  and 
•chances  which  may  happen  on  the  Continent.  How  would 
the  miseries  of  France  have  been  aggravated  duriug  the  revo- 
lution if  she  had  been  dependent  on  foreign  countries  for  the 
support  of  two  or  three  millions  of  her  people." 

It  is  instructive  to  read  what  was  thought  might  be  the 
magnitude  of  our  future  imports  of  wheat  in  1806.  In  page  268 
Mr.  Malthus  writes  :  "  We  can  hardly  doubt  that  in  the  course 
•of  some  years  we  shall  draw  from  America,  and  the  nations 
l)ordering  on  the  Baltic,  as  much  as  two  millions  of  quarters 
•of  wheat,  besides  other  corn,  the  support  of  above  two 
millions  of  people.  If  under  these  circumstances,  any  com- 
mercial discussion,  or  other  dispute,  were  to  arise  with  these 
nations,  with  what  a  weight  of  power  they  would  have  to 
negociate  !  Not  the  whole  British  Navy  could  offer  .  a  mortf 
convincing  argument  than  the  single  threat  of  shutting  ail 
their  ports.  I  am  not  unaware  that  in  general,  we  may 
^securely  depend  upon  people  not  acting  directly  contrary  to 
their  interest.  But  this  consideration,  all  powerful  as  it  is, 
will  sometimes  yield  voluntarily  to  national  indignation,  and 
it  is  sometimes  forced  to  yield  to  the  resentment  of  a  sove- 
reign. It  is  of  sufficient  weight  in  practice  when  applied  to 
manufactures  ;  because  a  delay  in  their  sale  is  not  of  such  im- 
mediate consequence.  But  in  the  case  of  corn,  a  delay  of 
three  or  four  months  may  produce  the  most  complicated 
misery  ;  and  from  the  great  bulk  of  corn,  it  will  generally  be 
in  the  power  of  the  sovereign  to  execute  almost  completely 
his  resentful  purpose."  This  is  the  argument  of  Mr.  Block, 
with  respect  to  our  dependence  on  the  United  States  for  so 
much  of  our  food  supplies.     He  remarks  that  it  might  easily 


OF  TH03f  AS  R.  MALTHUS.  9^v 

happen  that  some  party  in  the  United  States  might  take  to- 
prohibiting  the  export  of  corn,  and  in  such  a  case  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  people  of  this  country  would  at  once  be- 
plunged  into  the  severest  trouble  with  respect  to  their  food 
supplies.  A  war  with  the  United  States  is  of  couise  most 
unlikely,  too,  but  alas  !  even  such  a  catastrophe  is  possible  in. 
the  present  position  of  human  affairs. 

The  argument  made  use  of  by  M.  Maurice  Block,  that,  in 
times  of  war,  Great  Britain  may  possibly  in  some  future  time 
be  in  danger  of  seeing  much  of  its  population  starved  from 
want  of  food  supplies,  was  anticipated  by  Mai  thus  in  a  foot 
note  in  chapter  x.  He  there  says  : — "  I  should  be  misunder- 
stood if,  from  anything  I  have  said  in  the  four  last  chapters, 
I  should  be  considered  as  not  sufficiently  aware  of  the  advan-. 
tages  derived  from  commerce  and  manufactures.  I  look  upon 
them  as  the  most  distinguishing  characteristics  of  civilization, 
the  most  obvious  and  striking  marks  of  the  improvement  of 
society,  and  calculated  to  enlarge  our  enjoyments,  and  add  to 
the  sum  of  human  happiness.  No  great  surplus  of  agriculture- 
could  exist  without  them,  and  if  it  did  exist,  it  would  be  com- 
paratively of  very  little  value.  But  still  they  are  rather  the 
ornaments  and  embellishments  of  the  political  structure  than 
its  foundations.  While  these  foundations  are  perfectly  secure,. 
we  cannot  be  too  solicitous  to  make  all  the  apartments  con- 
venient and  elegant :  but  if  there  be  the  slightest  reason  to 
fear  that  the  foundations  themselves  may  give  way,  it  seems 
to  be  folly  to  continue  directing  our  principal  attention  to  tho 
less  essential  parts.  There  has  never  yet  been  an  instance  in 
history  of  a  large  nation  continuing  with  undiminished  vigour 
to  support  four  or  five  millions  of  its  people  on  imported  corn  ; 
nor  do  I  believe  that  there  ever  will  be  such  an  instance  in 
future.  England  is,  undoubtedly,  from  her  insular  situation 
and  commanding  navy,  the  most  likely  to  form  an  exception 
to  this  rule ;  but  in  spite  even  of  the  peculiar  advantages  of 
England,  it  appears  to  me  clear  that  if  she  continues  yearly  to- 
increase  her  importations  of  corn,  she  cannot  ultimately 
escape  that  decline  which  seems  to  be  the  natural  and 
necessary  consequence  of  excessive  commercial  wealth.. 
I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  next  twenty  or  thirty 
years,  but  of  the  next  two  or  three  hundred.  And 
though  we  are  little  in  the  habit  of  looking  so  far  forward, 
yet  it  may  be  questioned  whether  we  are  not  bound  in  duty  to> 
make  some  exertions  to  avoid  a  system  which  must  necessarily 
terminate  in  the  weakness  and  decline  of  our  posterity.     But 


•94  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

-whether  we  make  any  practical  application  of  such  a  discus- 
sion or  not,  it  is  curious  to  contemplate  the  cause  of  those 
reverses  in  the  fate  of  empires,  which  so  frequently  changed 
the  face  of  the  world  in  past  times,  and  may  be  expected  to 
produce  similar,  though  perhaps  not  such  violent  changes  in 
future.  War  was  undoubtedly,  in  ancient  times,  the  principal 
cause  of  these  changes  ;  but  it  frequently  only  finished  a  work 
which  excess  of  luxury  and  agriculture  had  begun.  Foreign 
invasions,  or  internal  convulsions,  produced  but  a  temporary 
and  comparatively  slight  eiSfect  upon  such  countries  as  Lombard y, 
Tuscany,  and  Flanders,  but  are  fatal  to  such  states  as  Holland 
and  Hamburg,  and  though  the  commerce  and  manufactures 
of  England  will  probably  always  be  supported  in  a  great 
degree  by  her  agriculture,  yet  that  part  which  is  not  so  sup- 
ported will  still  remain  subject  to  the  reverses  of  dependent 
states." 

Writing  in  1806,  Mr.  Malthus  adds  : — "  We  should  recollect 
that  it  is  only  within  the  last  twent}'  or  thirty  years  that  we 
have  become  an  imjDorting  nation.  In  so  short  a  period  it 
could  hardly  be  expected  that  the  evils  of  the  system  should 
be  perceptible.  We  have,  however,  already  felt  some  of  its 
inconveniences ;  and  if  we  persevere  at  it,  its  evil  conse- 
quences may  by  no  means  be  a  matter  of  remote  speculation." 

En  the  eleventh  chapter  of  his  third  book  our  author  treats 
of  the  prevailing  errors  respecting  population  and  plenty, 
and  notices  some  of  the  arguments  which  have  this  very  year 
(1883)  been  put  forward,  over  and  over  a£*.n,  by  the  disciples 
of  Mr.  Henry  George,  an  American  writer  who  has  acquired 
a  sudden  celebrity  for  his  work  on  "Progress  and  Poverty." 
**  It  has  been  observed,"  says  Mr.  Malthus,  *'  that  many 
countries  at  the  period  of  their  greatest  degree  of  populousness 
have  lived  in  the  greatest  plenty,  and  have  been  able  to 
export  corn ;  but  at  other  periods,  when  their  population  was 
very  low,  have  lived  in  continual  poverty  and  want,  and  have 
been  obliged  to  import  corn.  Egypt,  Palestine,  Rome,  Sicily, 
and  Spain  are  cited  as  particular  examples  of  this  fact :  and 
it  has  been  inferred  that  an  increase  of  population  in  any 
state,  not  cultivated  to  the  utmost,  will  tend  rather  to  aug- 
ment than  diminish  the  relative  plenty  of  the  whole 
society  ;  and  that,  as  Lord  Kaimes  observes,  a  country  cannot 
■easily  become  too  populous  for  agriculture,  because  agriculture 
has  the  signal  property  of  producing  food  in  proportion  to 

the   number   of  consumers The   prejudices   on   the 

fiubject  of  population  bear  a  very  striking  resemblance  to  the 


OF    THOMAS   B.    MALTHU8  96 

old  prejudices  about  specie,  and  we  know  how  slowly  and 
-with,  what  difficulty  these  last  have  yielded  to  juster  concep- 
tions. Politicians,  observing  that  states  which  were  power- 
ful and  prosperous  were  almost  invariably  populous,  have 
mistaken  an  effect  for  a  cause,  and  concluded  that  their  popu- 
lation was  the  cause  of  their  prosperity,  instead  of  their 
prosperity  being  the  cause  of  their  population  ;  as  the  old 
3)olitical  economists  concluded,  that  the  abundance  of  specie 
was  the  cause  of  national  wealth,  instead  of  the  effect  of  it. 
The  annual  produce  of  the  land  and  labour,  in  both  of  these 
instances,  became  in  consequence  a  secondary  consideration, 
and  its  increase,  it  was  conceived,  would  naturally  follow  the 
increase  of  specie  in  the  one  case,  or  of  population  in  the 
other.  Yet  surely  the  folly  of  endeavouring  to  increase  the 
quantity  of  specie  in  any  country  without  an  increase  of  the 
commodities  which  it  is  to  circulate,  is  not  greater  than  that 
•of  endeavouring  to  increase  the  number  of  people  without  an 
increase  of  the  food  which  is  to  maintain  them  ;  and  it  will 
be  found  that  the  level  above  which  no  human  laws  can  raise 
the  population  of  a  country,  is  a  limit  more  fixed  and  im- 
passable than  the  limit  to  the  accumulation  of  specie." 

**  Ignorance  and  despotism  seem  to  have  no  tendency  to  de- 
€troy  the  passions  which  prompt  to  increase  ;  but  they  effect- 
ually destroy  the  checks  to  it  from  reason  and  foresight.  The 
improvident  barbarian  who  thinks  only  of  his  present  wants, 
or  the  miserable  peasant,  who,  from  his  political  situation, 
feels  little  security  of  reaping  what  he  has  sown,  will  seldom 
be  deterred  from  gratifying  his  passion  by  the  prospect  of 
inconvenience,  which  cannot  be  expected  to  press  upon  him 
under  three  or  four  years.  Industry  cannot  exist  without  fore- 
sight and  security.  Even  poverty  itself,  which  appears  to  be 
the  great  spur  to  industry,  when  it  has  passed  certain  limits 
almost  ceases  to  operate.  The  indigence  which  is  hopeless 
destroys  all  vigorous  exertion,  and  confines  the  efforts  to  what 
ie  sufficient  for  bare  existence.  It  is  the  hope  of  bettering  our 
condition,  and  the  fear  of  want  rather  than  want  itself,  that  is 
the  best  stimulus  to  industry  ;  and  its  most  constant  and  best 
directed  efforts  will  almost  invariably  be  found  among  a  class 
of  people  above  the  class  of  the  wretchedly  poor." 

This  remark  of  Mai  thus  is  a  reply  to  those  who  say  that  if 
food  were  cheaper  and  the  poor  better  fed,  they  would  only 
work  as  much  as  was  needed  to  get  a  scanty  supply  of  food. 
Experience  in  our  colonies  and  in  the  United  States  shows  that 
the  fear  of  want  is  an  incentive  to  make  the  early  colonists  of  a 


96  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

fertile  country  fervid  in  their  desire  to  obtain  wealth. 

**  That  an  increase  of  population,"  says  Malthus,  *'  when  it- 
follows  in  its  natural  order,  is  both  a  great  positive  good  iiL 
itself,  and  absolutely  necessary  to  a  further  increase  in  the- 
annual  produce  of  the  land  and  labour  of  any  country,  I 
should  be  the  last  to  deny.  The  onl}'  question  is,  What  is 
the  natural  order  of  this  progress  ?  In  this  point.  Sir  James- 
Stewart  appears  to  me  to  have  fallen  into  an  error.  He  de- 
termines that  multiplication  is  the  etiicient  cause  of  agricul- 
ture, and  not  agriculture  of  multiplication  ;  but  though  it  may 
be  allowed  that  the  increase  of  people  beyond  what  could  easily 
subsist  on  the  natural  fruits  of  the  earth,  first  pi'ompted  man 
to  till  the  ground:  and  that  the  view  of  maintaining  a  family, 
or  of  obtaining  some  valuable  consideration  in  exchange  for- 
the  products  of  agriculture,  still  operates  as  the  principal 
stimulus  to  cultivation  ;  yet  it  is  clear  that  these  products,  in 
their  actual  state,  must  be  beyond  the  lowest  wants  of  the 
existing  population  before  any  permanent  increase  can  possibly 
be  supported.  We  know  that  a  multiplication  of  births  has 
in  numberless  instances  taken  place,  which  has  produced  no- 
effect  upon  agriculture,  and  has  merely  been  followed  by  an 
increase  of  diseases  :  but  perhaps  there  is  no  instance  where  a. 
permanent  increase  of  agriculture  has  not  a  permanent 
increase  of  population,  somewhere  or  other.  Consequently 
agriculture  may  with  more  propriety  be  termed  the  efficient 
cause  of  ])Opulation,  than  population  of  agriculture,  though 
they  certainly  react  upon  each  other,  and  are  mutually 
necessary  to  each  other's  support." 

"The  author  of  *  L'Ami  des  Hommes  '  (Mirabeau's  father),, 
in  a  chapter  on  the  effects  of  a  decay  in  agriculture  upon 
population,  acknowledges  that  he  had  fallen  into  a  fundamental 
error  in  considering  population  as  the  source  of  revenue  :  and 
that  he  was  afterwards  convinced  that  revenue  was  the  source 
of  population.  From  a  want  of  attention  to  this  most  im- 
portant distinction,  statesmen,  in  pursuit  of  the  desirable- 
object  of  population^  have  been  led  to  encourage  early 
marriages,  to  reward  the  fathers  of  families,  and  to  disgrace- 
celibacy  ;  but  this,  as  the  same  author  justly  observes,  is  to- 
dress  and  M'ater  a  piece  of  land  without  sowing  it,  yet  to- 
expect  a  crop."  It  is  curious  that  so  back wai'd  is  speculation 
on  this  question  even  in  modern  France,  the  most  practical 
Neo-Malthusian  country  in  Europe,  that  this  year  has  already 
seen  two  proposals  made  by  learned  FrenLihmen  to  encourage 
marriage  and  large  families.     The   first  emanated  from  the- 


OF  THOMA.s  R.  MA  I  fHUS. 


97 


eon  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  surgeons  of  Paris,  Dr. 
Eichet  ;  the  other  from  a  member  of  the  French  Corps 
Legislatif. 

"  Among  the  other  prejudices,"  says  Malthus,  ''  which  hare 
prevailed  on  the  subject  of  population,  it  has  been  generally 
thought  that  while  there  is  either  waste  among  the  rich,  or 
laud  remaining  uncultivated  in  any  country,  the  complaints 
for  want  of  food  cannot  be  justly  founded,  or  at  least  that  the 
presence  of  distress  among  the  poor  is  to  be  attributed  to  the 
ill-conduct  of  the  higher  classes  of  society  and  the  bad  man- 
agement of  the  land.  The  real  effect,  however,  of  these  two 
circumstances  is  merely  to  narrow  the  limit  of  the  actual 
population  ;  but  they  have  little  or  no  influence  on  what  may 
be  called  the  average  pressure  of  distress  on  the  poorer  mem- 
bers of  society.  If  our  ancestors  had  been  so  frugal  and  in- 
dustrious, and  had  transmitted  such  habits  to  their  posterity, 
that  nothing  superfluous  was  consumed  by  the  higher  classes, 
no  horses  were  used  for  pleasure,  and  no  land  was  left  uncul- 
tivated, a  striking  difference  would  appear  in  the  state  of  the 
actual  population,  but  piobably  none  whatever  in  the  state  of 
the  lower  classes  of  people,  with  respect  to  the  price  of  labour 
and  the  facility  of  supporting  a  family.  The  waste  among  the 
rich,  and  the  horses  kept  for  pleasure,  have  indeed  a  little  the 
effect  of  the  consumption  of  grain  in  distilleries,  noticed  before 
with  regard  to  China.  On  the  supposition  that  the  food  con- 
sumed in  this  manner  may  be  withdrawn  on  the  occasion  of  a 
scarcity,  and  be  applied  to  the  relief  of  the  poor,  they  operate 
certainly  as  far  as  they  go,  like  granaries  which  are  only 
opened  at  the  time  that  they  are  wanted,  and  must  therefore 
tend  rather  to  benefit  than  to  injure  the  lower  classes  of  so- 
ciety. 

"  With  regard  to  uncultivated  land,"  says  our  author,  "  it  is 
evident  that  its  effect  upon  the  poor  is  neither  to  injure  nor  to 
benefit  them.  The  sudden  cultivation  of  it  would  undoubtedly 
tend  to  improve  their  condition  for  a  time,  and  the 
»^eglect  of  lands  before  cultivated  will  certainly  make  their 
situation  worse  for  a  certain  period  ;  but  when  no  changes  of 
this  kind  are  going  forward  the  effect  of  uncultivated  land  on 
the  lower  class  operates  merely  like  the  possession  of  a  smaller 
territory.  It  is  indeed  a  point  of  very  great  importance  to 
the  poor  whether  a  country  is  in  the  habit  of  exporting  or  im- 
porting corn  ;  but  this  point  is  not  necessarily  connected  with 
the  complete  or  incomplete  cultivation  of  the  whole  territory, 
but  depends  upon  the  proportion  of  the  surplus  produce  to  those 


98  THE  LIFE  AND   WRITINGS 

who  are  supported  by  it ;  and  in  fact  this  proportion  is  gener- 
ally the  greatest  in  countries  which  have  not  yet  completed 
the  cultivation  of  their  territory. 

*'  We  should  not,  therefore,  be  too  ready  to  make  inferences 
against  the  internal  economy  of  a  country  from  the  appearance 
of  uncultivated  heaths,  without  other  evidence.  But  the  fact 
is,  that  no  country  has  ever  reached,  or  probably  ever  will 
reach,  its  highest  possible  acme  of  produce,  it  appears  always 
as  if  the  want  of  industr3^  or  the  ill-direction  of  that  industry, 
was  the  actual  limit  to  a  further  increase  of  produce  and  popu- 
lation,and  not  the  absolute  refusal  of  nature  to  yield  anymore; 
but  a  man  who  is  locked  up  in  a  room  may  be  fairh^  said  to  be 
confined  by  the  walls  of  it,  though  he  may  never  touch  them  ; 
and  with  regard  to  the  principle  of  population,  it  is  never  the 
question  whether  a  country  will  produce  any  more,  but  whether 
it  may  be  made  to  produce  a  sufficiency  to  keep  pace  with  an 
unchecked  increase  of  people.  In  China  the  question  is  not, 
whether  a  certain  additional  quantity  of  rice  might  be  raised 
by  improved  culture,  but  whether  such  an  addition  could  be 
counted  on  during  the  next  twenty-five  j'ears  as  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  support  an  additional  three  hundred  millions  of 
people.  And  in  this  country  it  is  not  the  question  whether, 
by  cultivating  all  our  commons,,  we  could  raise  considerably 
more  than  at  present :  but  whether  we  could  raise  sufficient 
for  a  population  of  twenty  millions  in  the  next  twenty-five 
years  and  forty  millions  in  the  next  fifty  years. 

"  The  allowing  of  the  produce  of  the  earth  to  be  absolutely 
unlimited  scarcely  removes  the  weight  of  a  hair  from  the  argu- 
ment, which  depends  entirely  upon  the  differently  increasing 
ratios  of  population  and  food  ;  and  all  that  the  most  enlight- 
ened governments  and  the  most  persevering  and  best  guided 
efforts  of  industry  can  do,  is  to  make  the  necessary  checks  to 
population  act  more  equably,  and  in  a  direction  to  produce 
the  least  evil ;  but  to  remove  them  is  a  task  absolutely  hope- 
less." 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  last  part  of  Malthus's  great  essay 
on  population.  In  Book  IV.  our  author  speaks  in  chapter  i. 
of  future  prospects  of  the  removal  or  mitigation  of  the  evils 
arising  from  the  principle  of  population.  He  shows  that  we 
must  submit  to  the  population  law  as  an  ultimate  law  of  nature, 
and  that  all  that  remains  for  us  is,  how  we  may  check  popu- 
lation with  the  least  prejudice  to  the  virtue  and  happiness  of 
human  society.  He  claims  for  moral  restraint  that  it  is  the 
least  harmful  of  all  the  checks.     "  If  we  be  intemperate  ia 


OF  TII03IAS  U.  MAT/niUS.  99 

eating  and  drinking  (he  says)  we  are  disordered  ;  if  we  in- 
dulge the  transi^orts  of  anger,  we  seldom  fail  to  commit  actg 
of  which  we  afterwards  repent ;  if  we  multiply  too  fast,  we 

die  miserably  of  poverty  and  contagious  diseases The  kind 

of  food,  and  the  mode  of  preparing  it,  best  suited  for  the  pur- 
poses of  nutriment  and  the  gratification  of  the  palate,  'sic, 
were  not  pointed  out  to  the  attention  of  man  at  once,  but  were 
the  slow  and  late  result  of  experience,  and  of  the  admonitions 
received  by  repeated  failures." 

Mr.  Malthus  then,  following  Hippocrates,  points  out  that 
in  the  history  of  every  epidemic,  it  has  almost  invariably  been 
observed,  that  the  lower  classes  of  people,  whose  food  was 
poor  and  insufficient,  and  who  lived  crowded  together  in  small 
and  dirty  houses,  were  the  principal  victims.  "  In  what  other 
manner  can  nature  point  out  to  us,  that  if  we  increase  too  fa.st 
for  the  means  of  subsistence,  so  as  to  render  it  necessary  for  a 
•considerable  part  of  the  society  to  live  in  this  miserable  man- 
ner, we  have  offended  against  one  of  her  laws  ?"  After  the 
desire  of  food,  the  most  powerful  and  general  of  our  desires  is 
passion  between  the  sexes,  taken  in  an  enlarged  sense.  Mr. 
Godwin  had  said,  in  one  of  his  works  :  ''  Strip  the  commerce 
of  the  sexes  of  all  its  attendant  cii'cumstances,  and  it  would  be 
generally  despised."  To  this  Mr.  Malthus  replies,  that  God- 
win might  as  well  say  to  a  man  who  admired  trees :  "  Strip 
them  of  their  spreading  branches  and  lovely  foliage,  and  what 
beauty  can  you  see  in  a  bare  pole?"  ''The evening  meal,  the 
warm  house,  and  the  comfortable  fire-side  would  lose  half  of 
their  interest  if  we  were  to  exclude  the  idea  of  some  object  of 
affection  with  whom  they  were  to  be  shared." 

Few  or  none,  then,  of  our  human  passions  would  admit  of 
being  greatly  diminished,  without  narrowing  the  sources  of 
good  more  pov/erfully  than  the  sources  of  evil.  The  fecundity 
of  the  human  species  is,  in  some  respects,  a  distinct  considera- 
tion from  the  passion  between  the  sexes.  It  is  strong  and 
general,  and  apparently  would  not  admit  of  any  very  consider- 
able diminution  without  being  inadequate  for  its  object.  "It 
is  of  the  very  utmost  importance  to  the  happiness  of  mankind 
that  they  should  not  increase  too  fast ;  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  object  to  be  accomplished  would  admit  of  any  very 
considerable  diminution  in  the  desire  for  marriage.  It  is 
clearly  the  duty  of  each  individual  not  to  marry  until  he  has 
a  prospect  of  supporting  his  children  :  but  it  is  at  the  same 
time  to  be  wished  that  he  should  retain  undiminished  his  de- 
sire for  marriacre,  in  order  that  he  may  exert  himself  to  realise 


100  THE  LIFE  AN])   WIMTINGS 

this  prospect,  and  be  stimulated  to  make  provision  for  the  sup- 
port of  greater  numbers. 

"  Our  obligation  not  to  marry  till  we  have  a  fair  prospect 
b  ing  able  to  support  our  children  will  appear  to  deserve  the- 
attention  of  the  moralist,  if  it  can  be  proved  that  an  attention 
to  these  obligations  is  of  more  effect  in  the  prevention  of  mis- 
ery than  all  the  other  virtues  combined ;  and  that  if,  in  viola- 
tion of  this  dut}^,  it  was  the  general  custom  to  follow  the  first 
impulse  of  nature,  and  marry  at  the  age  of  pubert}^  the  uni- 
versal prevalence  of  every  known  virtue  in  the  greatest  con- 
ceivable degree  wonld  fail  of  rescuing  society  from  the  most 
wretched  and  deplorable  state  of  want,  and  all  the  diseases- 
and  famines  which  usually  accompany  it." 

In  chapter  ii.Mr.  Malthus  speaks  of  the  effects  which  would 
result  to  societ}^  from  the  prevalence  of  this  virtue  of  moral 
restraint.  "  No  man  whose  earnings  were  only  sufficient  to 
maintain  two  children,  would  put  himself  in  a  situation  in 
which  he  might  have  to  maintain  four  or  five,  however  he 
might  be  prompted  to  it  by  the  passion  of  love.  The  interval 
between  the  age  of  puberty  and  the  period  at  which  each  in- 
dividual might  venture  to  marry  must,  according  to  this  view 
be  passed  in  strict  chastity  ;  because  the  law  of  chastity  can- 
not be  violated  without  producing  evil.  The  effect  of  any- 
thing like  a  promiscuous  intercourse  which  prevents  the  birth 
of  children,  is  evidently  to  weaken  the  best  affections  of  the- 
heart,  and  in  a  very  marked  manner  to  degrade  the  female 
character.  And  any  other  intercourse  would,  without  imj^roper 
arts,  bring  as  many  children  into  society  as  marriage,  with  a. 
much  greater  probability  of  their  becoming  a  burden  to  it." 

The  phrase,  '*  improper  arts,"  is  the  only  point  on  which 
the  so-styled  Neo-Malthusians  differ  from  Malthus.  To  his 
modern  disciples  it  seems  abundantly  proved,  from  the  experi- 
ence of  France  and  elsewhere,  that  late  marriage  is  not  what 
must  be  trusted  to  to  check  population  ;  but  a  restraint  in  the 
size  of  families.  Mr.  Malthus,  indeed,  seems  himself  to  recog- 
nise the  evils  of  late  marriages,  for  he  writes  :  "  The  late  mar- 
riages at  present  are,  indeed,  principall}^  confined  to  the  men  ; 
and  there  are  few, however  advanced  in  life  they  may  be,  who,, 
if  they  determine  to  marry,  do  not  fix  their  choice  on  a  very 
young  wift.  A  young  woman,  without  fortune,  when  she^ 
has  passed  her  twenty-fifth  year,  begins  to  fear,  and  with  rea- 
son, that  she  may  lead  a  life  of  celibacy If  women  could 

look  forward  with  just  confidence  to  marriage  at  twentj^-eight. 
or  thirty,  I  fully  believe  that,  if  the  matter  were  left  to  them.. 


OF    THOMAS    It.    MALTIIUS.  101 

:for  choice,  they  would  clearly  prefer  waiting  till  this  period, 
to  the  being  involved  in  all  the  cares  of  a  large  family  at 
twenty-five." 

Lord  Derby,  some  years  ago,  truly  observed  that  great  em- 
perors did  not  like  their  subjects  to  be  too  well  off.  This 
remark  may  have  been  a  citation  from  Malthus,  where  he  says: 
"''The  ambition  of  princes  would  want  instruments  of  destruc- 
tion, if  the  distresses  of  the  lowei-  classes  of  their  subjects  did 
not  drive  them  under  their  standards.  A.  recruitino;  sero-eaut 
always  prays  for  a  bad  harvest  and  want  of  employment,  or 
iu  other  words,  a  redundant  population."  Mr.  Malthus  points 
out  that  a  society  with  a  low  birth  rate  will  be  extremely 
powerful  both  in  war  and  peace.  One  of  the  principal  en- 
couragements to  an  offensive  war  would  be  removed,  and 
there  would  be  greater  freedom  from  poh'tical  dissensions  at 
home.  "  Indisposed  to  a  war  of  offence,  in  a  war  of  defence 
such  a  society  would  be  strong  as  a  rock  of  adamant.  Where 
every  family  po.rsessed  the  necessaries  of  life  or  plenty,  and  a 
decent  portion  of  its  comforts  and  couveniences,  there  could 
not  exist  that  hope  of  change,  or  at  best  that  melancholy  and 
disheartening  indifference  to  it,  which  sometimes  prompts  the 
lower  classes  of  people  to  say— Let  what  will  come,  we  can- 
not be  worse  off  than  we  are  now." 

In  chapter  iii.  Mr.  Malthus  speaks  rather  gloomily  as  ti 
the  prospect  of  Society  adopting  his  recommendation  of  late 
•marriages,  "  I  believe  (he  says)  that  few  of  my  readers  can  be 
less  sanguine  of  expectations  of  any  great  change  in  the 
genei-al  conduct  of  men  on  this  subject  than  I  am."  He 
proposes  it,  it  seems,  in  order  chiefly  to  vindicate  the  character 
of  the  Deity  !  This  is  at  present  known  by  all  scientific 
inquirers  to  be  a  fallacious  argument;  and  we  cannot  but 
contrast  with  our  great  author's  vacillating  doctrine,  the  clear 
"in  of  duty  laid  down  by  the  greatest  of  his  followers,  Mr. 
J.  S.  Mill,  when  he  says  that  the  happiness  of  society  is  quite 
attainable,  if  only  it  becomes  a  rule  of  morals  that  the  pro- 
duciug  of  large  families  in  Europe  should  be  looked  upon  as 
^  vice. 

"  Almost  everything  that  has  hitherto  been  done  for  the  poor 
has  tended,  as  if  with  solicitous  care,  to  throw  a  veil  of 
■obscurity  over  this  subject,  and  to  hide  from  them  the  true 
cause  of  their  poverty.  A  man  has  always  been  told  that  to 
raise  up  subjects  for  his  king  and  country  is  a  meritorious  act. 
In  an  etideavonr  to  raise  the  proportion  of  the  quantity  of 
provisions  to  the  number  of  consumers  in  any  country,  our 


102  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

attention  would  naturally  be  first  directed  to  the  increasing  of 
the  absolute  quantity  of  provisions,  but  finding  that,  a& 
fast  as  we  did  this,  the  numbers  of  consumers  more  than  kept 
pace  with  it,  and  that  with  all  our  exertions  we  were  still  as- 
far  as  ever  behind,  we  should  be  convinced  that  our  efforts 
directed  in  this  way  would  never  succeed.  It  would  appear 
to  be  setting  the  tortoise  to  catch  the  hare.  Finding  there- 
fore, that  from  the  laws  of  nature  we  could  not  proportion 
the  food  to  the  population,  our  next  attempt  should  naturally 
be  to  proportion  the  population  to  the  food.  If  we  can  per- 
suade the  hare  to  go  to  sleep,  the  tortoise  may  have  some- 
some  chance  of  overtaking  her." 

In  chapter  iv.,  our  author  replies  to  some  objections.  Some- 
of  his  critics  had  said  that  if  his  advice  were  followed,  the 
market  would  be  rather  understocked  with  labour.  To  this 
Maltbus  observes  that  "  a  market  overstocked  with  labour,, 
and  an  ample  remuneration  to  each  labourer,  are  objects  per- 
fectly incompatible  with  each  other.  In  the  annals  of  the- 
world  they  have  never  existed  together  ;  and  to  couple  them 
even  in  imagination  betrays  a  gross  ignorance  of  the  simplest 
principles  of  political  economy."  Mr.  Malthus  then  replies- 
to  the  oft  repeated  futuritj^  argument  as  follows  :  "  I  can 
easily  conceive  that  this  country,  with  a  proper  direction  of 
the  national  industry-,  might,  in  the  course  of  some  centuries^ 
contain  two  or  three  times  its  present  population,  and  yet 
every  man  in  the  kingdom  be  better  paid  and  clothed  than  he- 
is  at  present." 

'•  While  the  springs  of  industry  continue  in  vigor,  and  a 
sufficient  part  of  that  industry  is  directed  to  agriculture,  we 
need  be  under  no  apprehension  of  a  deficient  population  ;  and 
nothing  perhaps  would  tend  so  strongly  to  create  a  spirit  of 
industry  and  economy  among  the  poor,  as  a  thorough  know- 
ledge that  their  happiness  must  always  depend  principally 
npon  themselves ;  and  that  if  they  obey  their  passions  in 
opposition  to  their  reason,  or  be  not  industrious  and  frugal 
while  they  are  single  men,  and  save  a  sum  for  the  common 
contingencies  of  the  married  state,  they  must  expect  to  suffer 
the  natural  evils  which  Providence  has  prepared  for  those 
who  disobey  its  admonitions." 

This,  then,  is  the  main  argument  of  our  author  ;  but,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  fears  lest  he  will  not  be  listened  to  by  the 
masses,  and  also  sees  clearly  enough  that  his  advice  to  delay 
the  marriage  day  until  funds  have  been  reserved  to  meet  all 
demands  on  the  married  pair,  is  not  unlikely  to  lead  to  otlier 


OF    THOMAS    R.    MALTIIUS.  103 

evils.  *'  A  third  objection  which  may  be  started  (he  says)  to 
this  plan,  and  the  only  one  which  appears  to  rae  to  bear  any 
kind  of  plausibility  is,  that  by  endeavoring  to  urge  the  duty 
of  moral  restraint  on  the  poor,  we  may  increase  the  quantity 
of  sexual  vice." 

Malthus  finds  considerable  difficulty  in  meeting  this  attack, 
and  few  will  be  found  who  will  be  satisfied  with  the  follow- 
ing reply  to  this  objection.  "  I  should  be  extremely  sorry  to 
say  anything  which  could  be  either  remotely  or  directly  con- 
strued unfavorably  to  the  cause  of  virtue  ;  but  I  certainly 
cannot  think  that  the  vices  which  relate  to  the  sex  are  the 
only  vices  which  are  to  be  considered  in  a  moral  question  ;  or 
that  they  are  even  the  greatest  and  most  degrading  to  the 
human  character.  They  can  rarely  or  never  be  committed 
without  producing  such  offences  somewhere  or  other,  and 
therefore  ought  always  to  be  strongly  repudiated ;  but  there 
are  other  vices,  the  effects  of  which  are  still  more  pernicious  ; 
and  there  are  other  situations  which  lead  more  certainly  to 
moral  offences  than  the  refraining  from  marriage." 

All  of  this  is  beside  the  question  ;  and  our  author  fell  into 
this  kind  of  argument  precisely  because  he  had  no  experience 
as  we  moderns  have  of  marriage  with  small  families.  This 
alone  of  all  the  alternatives  gives  the  human  race  a  chance  of 
comfort,  love,  and  family  joys.  Were  it  the  custom  for  all  in 
a  country  like  England  to  consider  it  immoral  to  have  a 
family  exceeding  four  children,  there  might  doubtless  be  hope 
that  all  might  lead  a  virtuous  life  ;  but  Mr.  Malthus'  plan  of 
late  marriage  necessarily  condemns  many  women  to  celibacy, 
and,  as  he  admits,  tends  to  the  degradation  of  numbers  of 
other  women. 

Our  author  continues :  '^  Powerful  as  may  be  the  tempta- 
tions to  a  breach  of  chastity,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  they 
are  impotent,  in  comparison  with  the  temptations  arising 
from  continued  distress.  A  large  class  of  women  and  many 
men,  I  have  no  doubt,  pass  a  considerable  part  of  their  lives 
in  chastity ;  but  I  believe  there  will  be  found  very  few  who 
pass  through  the  ordeal  of  squalid  and  hopeless  poverty,  or 
even  of  long-continued  embarrassed  circumstances  without  a 

considerable    degradation   of  character Add   to  this   that 

squalid  poverty,  particularly  when  joined  with  idleness,  is  a 
state  the  most  unfavorable  to  character  that  can  well  be  con- 
ceived. The  passion  is  as  strong,  or  nearly  so,  as  in  other 
situations,  and  every  restraint  on  it  from  personal  respect 
or  a  sense  of  morality  is  generally  removed.  There  is  a  degree 


104  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

of  pqnalid  poverty  in  which,  if  a  girl  was  brought  up,  I 
should  say  that  her  being  really  modest  at  twenty  was  an 
absolute  miracle.  Those  persons  must  have  extraordinary 
minds  indeed,  and  such  as  are  not  usually  found  under 
similar  circumstances,  who  can  continue  to  respect  themselves 
when  no  other  person  whatever  respects  them.  If  the 
children  thus  brought  up  were  even  to  marry  at  twenty,  it  is 
prol)able  that  they  would  have  passed  some  years  in  vicious 
habits  before  that  period." 

Had  Mr.  Malthus  been  alive  at  this  moment,  and  travelled 
as  he  did  in  his  lifetime  through  the  rural  districts  of  France, 
he  would  have  been  the  first  to  admit  that  the  French  have 
given  the  only  solution  of  the  problem  he  states  so  clearly, 
that  has  ever  been  given  by  any  nation. 

"  If  (says  our  author)  statesmen  will  not  encourage  late 
marriages,  but  rather  the  opposite,  then  to  act  consistently 
they  should  facilitate,  instead  of  foolishly  and  vainly  en- 
deavoring to  impede,  the  operations  of  nature  in  causing  a 
great  infantile  mortality.  Instead  of  recommending  cleanli- 
ness to  the  poor,  they  should  cultivate  contrar}^  habits.  If 
by  these  and  similar  means,  the  annual  mortality  were  in- 
creased from  1  in  36  or  40,  to  1  in  18  or  20,  we  might 
probably  every  one  of  us  marry  at  the  age  of  puberty,  and 
yet  few  be  absolutely  starved.  If,  however,  we  all  marry  at 
this  age,  and  yet  still  continue  our  exertions  to  impede  the 
operations  of  nature,  we  may  rest  assured  that  all  our  efforts 
will  be  vain.  Nature  will  not,  and  cannot  be  defeated  in  her 
j)urposes.  The  necessary  mortality  must  come,  in  some  form 
or  other:  and  the  extirpation  of  one  disease  will  only  be  the 
signal  for  the  birth  of  another  perhaps  more  fatal.  We  can- 
not lower  the  waters  of  rivers  by  pressing  them  down  in 
different  places,  which  must  necessarily  make  them  rise  some- 
where else  ;  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  hope  to  effect  our 
purpose  is  by  drawing  them  off." 

"  In  a  country  which  keeps  up  its  population  at  a  certain 
standard,  if  the  average  number  of  marriages  and  births  be 
given,  it  is  evident  that  the  average  number  of  deaths  will 
also  be  given :  and  to  use  Dr.  Heberden's  metaphor,  the 
channels  through  which  the  stream  of  mortality  is  constantly 
flowing  will  always  convey  off  a  given  quantit}-.  Now,  if  we 
stop  up  any  of  these  channels,  it  must  be  perfectly  clear  that 
the  stream  of  mortality  must  run  with  greater  force  through 
some  of  the  other  channels  :  that  is,  if  we  eradicate  some  dis- 
eases, others  will  become  proportionally  more  fatal." 


OF  THOMAS  U.  MALTIIUS.  105 

"  Dr.  Tleberrlen,  (says  Malthns)  draws  a  striking  picture 
•of  the  favorable  change  observed  in  the  health  of  the  people 
of  England,  and  greatly  attributes  it  to  the  improvements 
which  have  gradually  taken  place,  not  only  in  London  but  in 
all  great  tou^ns  ;  and  in  the  manner  of  living  throughout  the 
kingdom,  particularly  in  respect  to  cleanliness  and  ventila- 
'tion.  But  these  causes  would  not  have  produced  the  effect 
observed,  if  they  had  not  been  accompanied  by  an  increase  of 
the  preventive  check  ;  and  probably  the  spread  of  cleanliness, 
and  better  mode  of  living,  which  then  began  to  prevail,  by 
spreading  more  generally  a  decent  and  useful  pride,  principally 
-contributed  to  this  increase.  The  diminution  in  the  number 
of  marriages,  however,  was  not  sufficient  to  make  up  for  the 
great  decrease  of  mortality,  from  the  extinction  of  the  plague, 
and  the  striking  reduction  of  the  deaths  from  the  dysentery. 
While  these,  and  some  other  diseases  became  evanescent,  con- 
sumption, palsy,  apoplexy,  gout,  lunacy  and  the  small-pox 
became  more  mortal.  The  widening  of  these  drains  was 
necessary  to  carry  off  the  population  which  still  remained 
redundant,  notwithstanding  the  increased  operation  of  the 
preventive  check,  and  the  part  which  was  annualh'  disposed 
•of,  and  enabled  to  subsist  by  the  increase  of  agriculture." 

Mr.  Malthus  then  adds  :  ''  For  ray  own  part,  I  feel  not  the 
■slightest  doubt,  that  if  the  introduction  of  the  cow-pox  should 
extirpate  the  small-pox,  and  yet  the  number  of  marriages  con- 
tinue the  same,  we  shall  find  a  very  perceptible  difference  in 
the  increased  mortality  of  some  other  diseases.  Nothing  could 
prevent  this  effect  but  a  sudden  start  in  our  agriculture  :  and 
:should  this  take  place,  which  I  fear  we  have  not  much  reason 
to  expect,  it  will  not  be  owing  to  the  number  of  children 
saved  from  death  by  the  cow-pox  inoculations,  but  to  the 
alarms  occasioned  among  the  people  of  property'  by  the  late 
^scarcities,  and  to  the  increased  gains  of  farmers,  which  have 
been  so  absurdly  reprobated.  T  am  strongly,  however,  inclined 
to  believe,  that  the  nuniber  of  marriages  will  not  in  this  case 
remain  the  same ;  but  that  the  gradual  light  which  may  be 
expected  to  be  thrown  on  this  interesting  topic  of  human  in- 
quiry, will  teach  us  how  to  make  the  extinction  of  a  mortal 
disorder,  a  real  blessing  to  us,  and  a  real  improvement  in 
the  general  health  and  happiness  of  the  society." 

In  these  admirable  remarks  Malthus  points  out  that  when- 
■ever  we  make  improvements  in  the  science  of  health,  we  must 
be  contented  to  lessen  the  birth-rate,  if  we  would  really  secure 
the  benefits  we  might  expect.     Thus,  if  drainage,  good  water 


106  THE  LIFE   ANP  WRITINGS 

Bupply,  and  the  extirpation  of  fevers  are  to  be  of  service  to 
us,  it  must  be  that  we  are  determined  to  have  fewer  children. 
For,  if  we  have  an  equally  high  birth-rate,  and  no  great 
addition  to  our  food  supplies  from  abroad  or  from  our  own 
soil,  we  must  die  inevitably  of  some  other  chronic,  although 
different,  maladies  than  those  produced  by  bad  drainage  and 
fevers,  or  small- pox.  In  no  case  can  we  have  a  birth-rate  of 
40  per  1,000  in  an  old  country,  without  a  high  death-rate. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

IN  Chapter  VI.  of  Book  IV.  Mr.  Malthus  treats  of  the- 
effects  of  the  knowledge  of  the  principal  cause  of  poverty 
on  Civil  Liberty,  observing  at  the  outset  that  it  may  appear 
to  some  that  a  doctrine  which  attributes  the  greatest  part  of 
the  sufferings  of  the  lower  classes  of  society  exclusively  to 
themselves,  is  unfavorable  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  affording^ 
it  may  be  said,  a  tempting  opportunity  to  governments  of 
oppressing  their  subjects  at  pleasure,  and  laying  all  the  blame- 
on  the  improvident  habits  of  the  poor.  Our  author  contends 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pressure  of  distress  on  the  lower 
classes  of  ueople,  with  the  habit  of  attributing  the  distress 
to  their  rulers,  appears  to  him  to  be  the  rock  of  defence,  the- 
castle  and  the  guardian  spirit  of  despotism,  affording  as  it 
does  to  the  tyrant  the  unanswerable  plea  of  necessity. 

"  The  patriot  who  might  be  called  upon  hj  the  love  of  his- 
country  to  join  with  heart  and  hand  in  a  rising  of  the  people 
for  some  specific  attainable  object  or  reform,  if  he  knew  that 
they  were  enlightened  respecting  their  own  situation,  and: 
would  stop  short  when  the\'  had  attained  their  demand,  would 
be  called  upon  by  the  same  motion  to  submit  to  very  great 
opposition  rather  than  give  the  slightest  countenance  to  a 
popular  tumult,  the  members  of  which,  at  least  the  greatest 
number  of  them,  were  persuaded  that  the  destruction  of  the 
Parliament,  the  Lord  Mayor,  and  the  monopoly  would  make 
bread  cheap,  and  that  a  revolution  would  enable  them  all  tO' 
support  their  families.  In  this  case  it  is  more  the  ignorance 
and  delusion  of  the  lower  classes  of  people  that  occasions  the 
023pression,  than  the  actual  disposition  of  the  government  to- 
tyranny." 

Mr.  Malthus  observes  that  the  circulation  of  Paine's  Rights 
of  Man  was  said  to  have  done  great  mischief  among  the  lower 


OF  TIIO.MAS  R.  MALTIIUS.  lOT 

and  middle  classes  in  this  country  :  and  that  might  be  true  ; 
but  that  was  because  Mr.  Paine  in  many  important  points  had 
shown  himself  totally  unacquainted  with  the  structure  of 
society,  and  the  different  moral  effects  to  be  expected  from  the- 
physical  difference  between  this  country  and  America.  Mobs- 
of  the  same  description  as  those  collections  of  people  known, 
by  that  name  in  Europe  could  not  at  that  day  exist  in  America. 
The  number  of  people  without  property  was,  then,  at  that 
time,  from  the  physical  state  of  the  country,  comparatively 
small :  and  therefore  the  civil  power  which  was  needed  to 
protect  property,  did  not  require  to  be  so  large.  Mr.  Paine 
argued  that  the  real  cause  of  riots  was  always  want  of  happi- 
ness, and  maintained  that  such  was  always  due  to  something 
being  wrong  in  the  system  of  Government.  But  this  is 
evidently  not  always  the  case.  The  redundant  population  of 
an  old  state  furnishes  materials  for  unhappiness,  unknown  to 
such  a  state  of  that  of  America. 

Nothing  would  so  effectually  counteract  the  mischief  caused 
by  Mr.  Paine's  Rights  of  Man  (says  our  author),  as  a  general 
knowledge  of  our  true  rights.  "  What  these  rights  are,  it  is 
not  now  my  business  to  explain  :  but  there  is  one  right  which 
man  has  generally  been  thought  to  possess,  which  I  am  con- 
fident he  neither  does  nor  can  possess,  a  right  to  subsistence 
when  his  labor  will  not  fairly  purchase  it.  Our  laws  (in  1806)' 
indeed  say  that  he  has  this  right,  and  bind  the  society  to- 
furnish  employment  and  food  to  them  who  cannot  get  them 
in  the  regular  market ;  but  in  so  doing  they  attempt  to  reverse 
the  laws  of  nature ;  and  it  is  in  consequence  to  be  expected, 
not  only  that  they  should  fail  in  their  object,  but  that  the 
poor  who  were  intended  to  be  benefited  should  suffer  most 
cruelly  from  this  inhuman  deceit  which  is  practised  upon, 
them." 

Malthus  adds  that  the  Abbe  Eaynal  had  said  that  before 
all  other  social  laws,  man  has  a  right  to  subsistence.  "  He 
might  just  as  well  have  said  that  every  man  had  a  right  to  live 
100  years.  Yes  !  He  has  a  right  to  do  so,  if  he  can.  Good 
social  laws  enable  truly  a  greater  number  of  people  to  exist 
than  could  without  them  ;  but  neither  before  nor  since  the- 
institution  of  social  laws  can  an  unlimited  number  exist. 
Consequently,  as  it  is  impossible  to  feed  all  that  might  be  born^ 
it  is  disgraceful  to  promise  to  do  so. 

'*  If  the  great  truths  on  these  subjects  were  more  generally^ 
circulated,  and  the  lower  classes  could  be  convinced  that  by^ 
the  laws  of  nature,  independently  of  any  particular  institution^ 


108  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

except  the  great  one  of  property,  which  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  order  to  attain  any  considerable  produce,  no 
person  has  any  claim  or  riohi  on  society  for  subsistence,  if  his 
labor  will  not  purchase  it,  the  greatest  part  of  the  mischievous 
■declamation  on  the  unjust  institutions  of  society  would  fall 
powerless  to  the  ground.  If  the  real  causes  of  their  misery 
were  shown  to  the  poor,  and  they  were  taught  to  know  how 
small  a  part  of  their  present  distress  was  attributable  to 
government,  discontent  would  be  far  less  common. 

"  Again — Remove  all  fear  from  the  tyranny  or  folly  of  the 
people,  and  the  tyranny  of  government  could  not  stand  a 
moment.  It  would  then  appear  in  its  proper  deformity, 
without  palliation,  without  pretext,  without  protection. 

'*  Grood  governments  are  chiefly  useful  to  the  poorer  classes, 
by  giving  them  a  clearer  view  of  the  necessity  of  some 
preventive  check  to  population.  And  in  despotic  govern- 
ments it  is  usually  found  that  the  checks  to  population  arise 
more  from  the  sickness  and  mortality  consequent  on  poverty, 
ihan  from  any  such  preventive  check." 

Mr.  Malthus  contends  that  *'the  most  successful  support- 
ers of  tyranny  are  without  doubt  those  general  declaimers 
who  attribute  the  distresses  of  the  poor,  and  almost  all 
the  evils  to  which  societj'  is  subject,  to  human  institutions 
and  the  iniquity  of  governments.  The  falsity  of  these  accusa- 
tions, and  the  dreadful  consequences  that  would  result  from 
their  being  generally  admitted  and  acted  upon,  make  it 
absolutely  necessary  that  they  should  at  all  events  be  resisted  : 
not  only  on  account  of  the  immediate  revolutionary  horrors 
to  be  expected  from  a  movement  of  the  people  acting  under 
such  impressions,  a  consideration  which  must  at  all  times 
have  very  great  weight,  but  on  account  of  the  extreme  pro- 
bability that  such  a  revolution  would  soon  terminate  in  a  much 
worse  despotism  than  that  which  it  had  destroyed.  What- 
ever may  be,  therefore,  the  intention  of  those  indiscriminate 
accusations  against  governments,  their  real  effect  undoubtedly 
is  to  add  a  weight  of  talents  and  principles  to  the  prevailing 
power  which  it  would  never  have  received  otherwise." 

**  Under  a  government  constructed  upon  the  best  and  purest 
principles,  and  executed  by  men  of  the  highest  talents  and 
integrity,  the  most  squalid  poverty  and  wretchedness  might 
universally  prevail  from  an  inattention  to  the  prudential  check 
to  population,  and  as  this  cause  of  unhappiness  has  hitherto 
been  so  little  understood,  that  the  efforts  of  society  have 
always  tended  rather  to  aggravate  than  to  lessen  it,  we  have 


OF   THOMAS    R.    MALTIIUS.  10^ 

the  strongest  reason  for  supposing  that  in  all  the  governments 
with  which  we  are  acquainted,  a  great  part  of  the  misery  to 
be  observed  among  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  arises  from 
this  cause." 

The  inference,  therefore,  which  Mr.  Godwin,  and  in  latter 
days  Mr.  Hyndman  and  the  Democratic  Federation,  have 
drawn  against  governments  from  the  unhappiness  of  the 
people  is  palpably  unfair,  and  before  we  give  a  sanction  to 
such  accusations,  it  is  a  debt  we  owe  to  truth  and  justice,  to 
ascertain  how  much  of  this  unhappiness  arises  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  population,  and  how  much  is  fairly  to  be  attributed 
to  government.  When  this  distinction  has  been  properly 
made,  and  all  the  vague,  indefinite,  and  false  accusations 
removed,  government  would  remain,  as  it  ought  to  be,  clearl}^ 
responsible  for  the  rest,  and  the  amount  of  this  would  still  be 
such  as  to  make  the  responsibility  very  considerable.  *'  Though 
government  has  but  little  power  in  the  direct  relief  of  poverty,, 
yet  its  indirect  influences  on  the  prosperity  of  its  subjects  is 
striking  and  incontestible.  And  the  reason  is,  that  though  it 
is  comparatively  impotent  in  its  efforts  to  make  the  food  of  a 
country  keep  pace  with  an  unrestricted  increase  of  population, 
yet  its  inflnence  is  great  in  giving  the  best  direction  to  those 
checks,  which  in  some  form  or  other  must  necessarily  take- 
place." 

The  first  great  requisite,  says  Mr.  Malthus,  to  the  growth 
of  prudential  habits  is  the  perfect  security  of  property,  and 
the  next  perhaps  is  that  respectability  and  importance  which 
is  given  to  the  lower  classes  by  equal  laws,  and  the  possession 
of  some  influence  in  the  framing  of  them.  The  more  excel- 
lent, then,  is  the  government,  the  more  does  it  tend  to  generate 
that  prudence  and  elevation  of  sentiment  by  which  alone  in 
the  present  state  of  our  being  can  poverty  be  avoided. 

Mr,  Malthus  was  greatly  opposed  to  despotic  government ; 
and  he  remarks  that  it  has  been  sometimes  asserted,  that  the 
only  reason  why  it  is  advantageous  that  the  people  should 
have  some  share  in  the  government,  is  that  a  representation 
of  the  people  tends  best  to  secure  the  framing  of  good  and 
equal  laws  ;  but  that  if  the  same  object  could  be  obtained  under 
a  despotism,  the  same  advantage  would  accrue  to  the  com- 
munity. If,  however,  the  representative  system,  by  securing 
to  the  lower  classes  of  society  a  more  equal  and  liberal  mode 
of  treatment  from  their  superiors,  gives  to  each  individual  a 
greater  ])ersonal  respectabilit}''  and  a  greater  fear  of  personal 
degradation,  it  is  evident  that  it  will  powerfully  co-operat© 


110  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

with  the  security  of  property  in  aniruating  the  exertions  of 
industry,  and  in  generating  habits  of  jDrudence,  and  thus  more 
powerfully  tend  to  increase  the  riches  and  prosperity  of  the 
lower  classes  of  the  community,  tbau  if  the  same  laws  had 
•existed  under  a  despotism. 

But,  says  our  author,  though  the  tendenc}^  of  a  free  consti- 
tution and  a  good  government  to  diminish  poverty  is  certain, 
yet  its  effect  in  this  way  must  necessarily  be  indirect  and 
slow,  and  very  different  from  the  immediate  and  direct  relief 
which  the  lower  classes  of  people  are  too  frequently  in  the 
habit  of  looking  forward  to  as  the  consequences  of  a  revolu- 
tion. This  habit  of  expecting  too  much,  and  the  irritation 
occasioned  by  disappointment,  continually  give  a  wrong  direc- 
tion to  their  efforts  in  favor  of  liberty,  and  continually  tend 
to  defeat  the  accomplishment  of  those  gradual  reforms  in 
.government,  and  that  slow  amelioration  of  the  lowest  classes 
of  society,  which  are  really  attainable. 

The  following  passage  might  be  well  studied  in  these  dayg 
■of  proposed  schemes  for  land  confiscation  and  communism. 
"  It  is  of  the  very  highest  importance,  therefore,  to  know  dis- 
tinctly what  government  cannot  do,  as  well  as  what  it  can  do. 
If  I  were  called  upon  to  name  the  cause  which,  in  my  con- 
ception, had  more  than  any  other  contributed  to  the  very  slow 
progress  of  freedom,  so  disheartening  to  everj'  liberal  mind, 
I  should  say  that  it  was  the  confusion  that  had  existed  respect- 
ing the  causes  of  the  unhappiness  and  discontent  which  pre- 
vail in  society :  and  the  advantage  which  governments  had 
been  able  to  take,  and  indeed  had  been  compelled  to  take,  of 
this  confusion,  to  confirm  and  strengthen  their  power.  I 
cannot  help  thinking,  therefore,  that  a  knowledge  generally 
■circulated,  that  the  principal  cause  of  want  and  unhappiness  is 
only  indirectly  connected  with  government,  and  totally  beyond 
its  power  to  remove  ;  and  that  it  depends  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  poor  themselves,  would,  instead  of  giving  any  advan- 
tage to  government,  give  a  great  additional  weight  to  the 
popular  side  of  the  question,  by  removing  the  danger  with 
which  from  ignorance  it  is  at  present  accompanied ;  and  these 
tend  in  a  very  jDOwerful  manner  to  promote  the  cause  of 
rational  freedom." 

Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  who  was  more  of  a  Socialist  than  Mr. 
Malthus  and  a  greater  optimist,  admits  that  it  would  be 
possible  for  the  State  to  ensure  employment  at  ample  wages 
to  all  that  are  born.  But,  he  adds,  if  it  does  this,  it  is  bound 
in  self-protection,  and  for  every  purpose  for  which  the  State 


OP  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  IH 

exists,  to  see  that  no  one  should  be  born  without  its  consent. 
That  is,  ne  seems  to  favor  the  framing  of  a  statute  directed 
against  the  production  of  large  families. 

In  suggesting  that  it  would  be  possible  for  the  State  to  en- 
sure employment  at  ample  wages  to  all  that  are  born,  if  it  only- 
takes  care  that  too  many  shall  not  be  born,  Mr.  Mill  differs 
a  good  deal  from  Mr.  Malthus  and  from  many  of  the  laissez 
/aire  economists  of  the  school  of  Adam  kSmith.  Persons  who 
are  great  admirers  of  individual  liberty  confound,  as  is  very 
often  the  case,  the  idea  of  freedom  with  that  of  the  right  to  do 
wrong.  It  is  quite  clear  that  if  in  an  old  country ,  such  as  any 
of  the  European  States,  all  classes  of  society  were  to  engender 
as  many  children  as  is  now  done  by  the  poorest  and  most 
thoughtless  members,  poverty  would  become  as  universal  as  it 
formerly  was,  when  mankind  were  less  civilised  and  had  a 
very  low  standard  of  comfort.  Mr.  Mill  and  those  who  follow 
him  in  this  contention,  among  whom  is  to  be  reckoned  the 
author  of  the  "  Elements  of  Social  Science,"  affirm  that,  although 
it  is  quite  true  that  a  grown  up  man  or  woman  should  be 
perfectly  free  to  live  his  or  her  own  life  so  far  a"?  relates  to 
€elf-regarding  actions,  it  is  a  confusion  of  ideas  to  style  the 
bringing  into  life  of  another  human  being,  an  act  purely  self- 
regarding.  When  a  country  is  over-peopled,  or  threatened 
with  that  greatest  of  all  calamities,  the  production,  it  is  held 
by  these  able  writers,  of  more  than  a  very  small  number  of 
children  by  any  couple  is  a  gross  offence  against  all  who  gain 
their  living  by  toil,  since  the  over-crowding  of  a  country  with 
human  beings  makes  it  very  difficult  for  those  at  the  bottom 
of  society  to  get  enough  even  of  the  coarsest  food  for  them- 
selves and  their  families,  whilst  life  is  rendered  harder  for  all 
who  have  to  gain  it  by  services  of  any  kind.  The  number  of 
children  to  a  family  among  the  richer  classes  in  France  appears 
now  to  be  on  an  average  not  quite  two  to  a  family  :  whereas 
the  poorer  classes  in  Paris  and  some  of  the  less  thoughtful 
districts  of  France  have  families  of  more  than  six  on  an 
average.  London  now  exhibits  the  notable  fact  that,  whereas 
in  the  comfortable  parishes  of  Kensington,  St.  George  Hanover. 
Square,  St.  James  Westminster,  and  Hampstead,  the  birth-rate 
in  1886  was  not  much  above  21  per  1000  inhabitants  annually  ; 
in  the  poor  parishes  of  Shoreditch,  Bethnal  Green,  St.  George 
in  the  East,  and  Whitechapel  the  birth-rate  was  38-6  per  1000 
in  that  year,  i.e.,  nearly  twice  as  many  children  are  born  of 
1000  persons  in  the  poor  quarters  as  in  the  rich.  As  a  con- 
sequence of  this,  the  death-rate  in  the  East  End  is  to  that  in 


112  THE  LIFE  AND    WRITIi^GS 

the  West  End  as  3  to  2.  Mr.  Mill,  and  in  this  I  entirely  concur 
with  him,  thinks  that  the  State  can  and  ought  to  discourage 
the  production  of  large  families  by  some  social  stigma,  and  the 
author  of  the  ''  Elements  of  Social  Science  "  thinks  that  some 
fine  might  be  the  penalty  for  the  production  of  more  than 
four  children  by  any  married  pair.  This  he  looks  upon  as  a 
far  juster  way  of  checking  rapid  birth-rates  than  the  Continental 
plan  of  preventing  the  poorest  persons  from  marrying,  since- 
it  is  not  marriage,  he  observes,  but  the  production  of  large 
families,  that  the  State  ought  to  endeavor  to  guard  against. 
The  mere  discussion  in  the  House  of  Commons  of  such  a  pro- 
position would  do  an  immense  deal  of  good  in  this  and  in  all 
European  States,  since  the  poorer  classes  are  generally  anxious 
enough  to  do  their  duty,  if  they  oii]y  knew  what  that  duty 
was.  Of  course  any  penalty  for  the  production  of  a  large 
family  should  fall  equally  on  the  rich  and  the  poor,  since  the 
miseries  inflicted  by  the  well-to-do  parent,  who  produces  a. 
large  family,  on  his  helpless  and  innocent  offspring,  in  the 
shape  of  life  long  celibacy,  may  fairly  be  compared  with  the 
want  of  food  which  such  conduct  causes  among  the  poor. 
And  any  penalty  ought  to  be  very  small,  because,  if  not  ^so,. 
persons  might  be  led  to  practise  criminal  abortion  or  infanti- 
cide, practices  most  inimical  to  the  welfare  and  even  the  ex- 
istence of  society. 

The  existence  of  the  Malthusian  theory  of  population  was 
greatly  obscured  during  the  greater   part  of  this  century   by 
the  writings  of  the  Free  Traders,  many  of  whom,  in  common 
with  the  illustrious  leaders  of  the  movement,  Messrs.  Cobden 
and  Bright,  thought  that  by  means  of  the  free  importation  of 
food,  poverty  might  be  entirely  put  an  end  to.     It  was  said  by 
some  of  the  most  enthusiastic  speakers  against  the  Corn  Laws,. 
that  if  they  were  but  abolished,  the   workhouses  would  soon- 
disappear  ;  and  the  United  Kingdom  would  be  filled  with  a 
numerous  and  contented   population.     This  shows   how  little- 
these    eminent   men   had   considered   the  immense  power  of 
multiplication  of  the  human  race.     As  Mr.  Malthus  said,  the- 
power  of  increasing  production  is,  to  the  power  of  reproduction, 
as  the  speed  of  a  tortoise  is  to  that  of  a  hare.     The  tortoise 
can  only  overtake  the  hare   if  the   swifter  animal  fall  asleep. 
Hence,  free  trade,  however  admirable  in  itself,  has  but  little 
influence  on  the  life  of  the  poorest  inhabitants   of  an   over- 
crowded country.     The  share  they  get  of  the  productions  of 
the  world  will  always  be  most  meagre,  so  long  as  they  increase 
so  rapidly  in  number  by  producing  families  of  ten  or  fifteen: 


OP  THOMAS  R.  MALTHUS.  113 

children,  and  thus  courting  the  positive  check  of  the  lower 
animals. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Malthus  wrote  his  essay,  it  began  to  be  noticed 
that  in  France  families  were  much  smaller,  among  the  respect- 
able classes,  than  they  were  iu  England ;  and  Mr.  Francis 
Place  wrote  a  pamplilet  in  which  he  pointed  this  out  and  re- 
commended the  plan  in  place  of  the  preventive  check  of  late 
marriages.  His  pamphlet  and  remarks  had  much  influence  on 
the  celebrated  Robert  Owen,  and  it  is  said  that  the  latter 
philanthropist  made  known  Place's  views  to  his  workmen  at 
New  Lanark,  in  Scotland,  and  it  was  on  that  account  that  that 
famous  socialistic  experiment  succeeded  so  well.  Mr.  Robert 
Dale  Owen,  son  of  Robert  Owen,  emigrated  to  the  United 
States  and  was  ambassador  to  Europe  from  that  country  for 
some  years.  His  pamphlet  entitled  "  Moral  Physiology  "  was 
a  most  eloquent  plea  for  parental  prudence,  or  early  marriages 
and  small  families.  That  pamphlet  was  written  subsequently 
to  one  written  by  Mr.  Richard  Oarlile,  entitled  "  Every 
Woman's  Book,"  and  also  to  Dr.  Charles  Knowlton  of  Boston's 
work,  written  in   1833,  entitled  the  "  Fruits  of  Philosophy." 

This  last  work,  in  company  with  those  of  Owen,  Carlile, 
and  Austin  Holyoake,  which  last  was  called  *'  Large  and  Small 
Families,"  were  sold  openly  for  some  forty  years  in  London 
and  elsewhere,  chiefly  by  the  Secular  party.  In  the  year  1876, 
the  "  Fruits  of  Philosophy  "  was  attacked  as  an  obscene  pub- 
lication under  a  new  Act  of  Parliauient,  called  "  Lord  Camp- 
bell's Act,"  and  a  Bristol  bookseller  named  Cook  was  sentenced 
to  two  years'  imprisonment  for  selling  it.  Mr.  Charles  Watts, 
the  London  publisher  of  the  work,  was  also  prosecuted  ;  but, 
on  his  submission,  he  was  allowed  to  get  free  with  the  pay- 
ment of  costs.  This  did  not  suit  the  views  of  the  more 
chivalrous  of  the  Secularist  party,  and  accordingly  Mr.  Charles 
Bradlaugh  and  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  the  leaders  of  that  party  in 
England,  issued  the  work  again  with  a  preface,  and  invited 
the  authorities  to  prosecute  them.  The  "Fruit?  of  Philosophy  " 
was  sold  openly  at  28,  Stonecutter  Street,  London,  and  as  the 
City  authorities  prosecuted,  the  case  was  sent  up  for  trial  to 
the  Queen's  Bench,  where  it  was  tried  before  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice  Cockburn  in  June,  1877.  The  details  of  this  most 
interesting  of  all  trials  are  to  be  found  in  a  work  published 
by  Mr.  Charles  Bradlaugh,  which  should  be  perused  by  all 
who  wish  to  understand  how  our  liberties  are  gradually  ac- 
quired. Mr.  Bradlaugh,  in  his  admirable  speech,  maintained 
that  the  advocacy  of  all  checks  to  population  is  lawful,  except 


114  THE  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS 

such  as  advise  the  destruction  of  the  foetus  in  utero,  or  the 
child  after  birth.  The  Lord  Chief  Justice  admitted  the  truth 
of  the  principle  of  population,  and  summed  up  most  favorably 
to  the  defendants  ;  but  the  jury  being  quite  new  to  the  ques- 
tion, gave  the  following  verdict :  "  We  are  unanimously  of 
opinion  that  the  book  in  question  is  calculated  to  deprave 
public  morals  ;  but  at  the  same  time  we  entirely  exonerate 
the  defendants  from  any  corrupt  motives  in  publishing  it." 
It  turned  out  that  the  indictment  was  faulty  ;  and,  on  appeal 
to  a  higher  court,  the  defendants  were  set  free  from  the  fine 
and  imprisonment  imposed  on  them  by  Chief  Justice  Cockburn, 
which  he  sentenced  them  to  becau>e  they  went  on  selling  the 
pamphlet.  In  the  year  1877  the  Malthusian  League,  a  society 
for  the  propagation  of  Malthusian  literature,  was  inaugurated. 
In  February,  1878,  Mr.  Edward  T/  uelove,  bookseller,  of  Hol- 
born,  London,  was  prosecuted  by  the  authorities  of  the  City  of 
London,  for  the  publication  of  the  Hon.  R.  D.  Owen's  pam- 
phlet "Moral  Physiology."  and  another  pamphlet  entitled 
*' Individual.  Family,  and  Natioual  Poverty."  His  case  was 
admirably  defended  by  Mr.  William  Hunter,  and  Mr.  Truelove 
was  set  free  ;  but  a  second  trial  took  place  shortly  after  this 
at  the  Old  Bailey,  and  the  jury  then  gave  a  verdict  of  guilty, 
on  which  the  judge  sentenced  the  defendant  to  a  fine  of  £200 
and  a  period  of  four  months'  imprisonment.  Fortunately,  Mr. 
Truelove's  health  was  excellent,  and  he  supported  his  period 
of  imprisonment  without  injury,  emerging  from  his  prison  a 
hero  to  all  those  who  understand  the  immense  value  of  the 
cause  for  which  he  suffered.  No  further  trials  have  taken 
place  of  such  works  in  London,  although  Mrs.  Annie  Besant's 
new  pamphlet,  the  "  Law  of  Population,"  and  others  have  had 
a  quite  enormous  sale  of  recent  years.  In  the  North  of  Eng- 
land and  in  Scotland,  there  is  still  a  remnant  of  the  old 
persecuting  spirit,  for  a  travelling  hawker  named  Mr.  William- 
son has  been  imprisoned  at  Goole  and  in  Lincolnshire  for 
selling  Mrs.  Besant's  pamphlet  in  1887.  In  the  same  year 
Dr.  Henry  Aithur  Allbutt  of  Leeds,  published  a  medical  work 
called  "The  Wife's  Handbook,"  which  gave  details  of  how 
the  size  of  a  family  might  be  controlled  by  married  people  ; 
and  the  Eoyal  College  of  Physicians  of  Edinburgh  in  1887 
summoned  him  in  March  to  come  up  in  three  months  time, 
to  show  cause  why  he  should  not  be  deprived  of  his  diploma 
for  this  act  of  common  humanity.  A  host  of  protests  and 
petitions  were  at  once  despatched  to  the  Fellows  of  the  College, 
bhowing  them  the  gross  wickedness  of  this  action  of  theirs  ; 


0^  I'lIOMAS  R.  MaLTHUS.  116 

nnd  the  consequence  of  this  wns  that  up  to  July,  1887,  Dr. 
H.  Arthur  Allbntt.  had  heard  nothing  more  of  this  atrocious 
[)er.-ecntion  by  the  governing  body  of  a  noble  profession 
against  one  of  its  members  for  telling  the  poor  how  to  get  rid 
'if  poverty.  Hopes  are  entertained  that  not  only  may  that 
body  of  [)hy8icians  withdraw  its  opposition  to  Dr.  H.  A.  All- 
butt's  work  ;  but  that  they  may  even  see  fit  to  act  the  generous 
part,  and,  whilst  confessing  their  error,  ask  for  forgiveness 
from  outraged  humanity. 

.»,.  ?     ...  -  :  ^ 


^ppcnMjc. 


At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Malthusian  League  in  May, 
1887,  held  in  London  at  the  South  Place  Institute,  Finsbury, 
Dr.  Charles  E.  Drysdale,  President  of  the  Malthusian 
League,  read  the  Presidential  Address,  which  contained  the 
following  passages  : — 

To  that  objection  to  the  Neo-Malthusian  propaganda  which  is 
usually  successful  with  timid  people,  that  incontinence  would 
be  increased  if  the  means  recommended  by  New-Malthusians 
\^-^re  adopted,  Mr.  Place  says  :  "I  am  of  opinion  it  would 
not ;  so  much  depends  on  manners,  that  it  seems  to  be  by  no 
n-.-r-diib  an  unreasonable  expectation  that,  if  these  were  so  im- 
proved as  greatly  to  increase  the  prudential  habits,  and  to  en- 
con.-age  the  love  of  distinction,  the  master-spring  of  public 
prosperity,  and  if,  in  consequence  of  the  course  recommended, 
all  could  marry  early,  there  would  be  less  debauchery  of  any 
kind.  An  improvement  in  manners  would  be  an  improvement 
in  morals  ;  and  it  seems  absurd  to  suppose  an  increase  of  vice 
with  improved  morals." 

Mr.  James  Mill,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Place,  writing  also  in  1820, 
(article  "  Colony,"  Encyclop.  BriL)  speaks  of  the  question  of 
checking  population  rationally  as  **  the  most  important  prac- 
tical problem  to  which  the  wisdom  of  the  politician  and  the 
moralist  can  be  applied."  '*  If,"  he  says,  "the  superstitions 
of  the  nursery  were  discarded,  and  the  principles  of  utility 
kept  steadily  in  view,  a  solution  might  not  be  difficult  to  be 
found,  and  the  means  of  drying  up  one  of  the  most  copious 
sources  of  human  evil — a  source  wliich,  if  all  other  sources  of 
evil  were  taken  away,  would  alone  suffice  to  retain  the  great 
mass  of  human  beings  in  misery,  might  be  seen  to  be  neither 
doubtful  nor  difficult  to  be  applied," 

l\lr.  Francis  Place  and  Mr.  James  Mill  exhibited  in  th^se 
utteiances  one  of  the  qualities  of  true  men  of  science — that  is, 
they  were  enabled  to  foretell  truly  what  has  takt-n  place  before 
the  end  of  the  century'  in  civilised  countries  like  England  and 
Fr;ince.  The  truth  of  their  prophecies  is  shown  in  the  fact 
tliat  the  inhabitants  of  France,  who,  at  the  commenccnieiit  of 
this  century,  had  a  biith-rate  of  33  children  aniiuall_\  }t"r  1"00 
of  inhabitants,  have  now  one  of  26  per  1000;   wh  le  the  West 


(11?) 

^iuA  of  London  shows  a  still  lower  birth-rate  than  this — in 
Kensington  of  20,  in  St.  George,  Hanover  Square,  of  19,  and 
in  Ilampstead  Parish  of  22  per  1000.  In  France,  the  low 
birth-rate  is  due,  as  every  intelligent  person  now  knows,  to 
to  Neo-Malthusian  practices  and  not  to  celibacy,  for  Fiance 
contains,  in  every  1000  inhabitants,  140  married  women  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty,  against  133  in  this  country 
and  under  128  in  Prussia.  This  prudence  among  the  French 
population,  since  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  seems  to 
have  been  due  to  a  certain  extent  to  the  acquisition  of  landed 
property  by  the  masses  of  the  population,  and  also  to  the  law 
of  equal  inheritance  i  a  France,  which  prohibits  parents  from 
leaving  their  real  or  personal  estates  to  one  person.  The  ex- 
treme desire  to  keep  the  land  in  the  hands  of  a  few  descend- 
ants has  made  the  more  respectable  of  the  French  peasants 
the  most  careful  of  Europeans.  Thus  we  find,  from  an  essay 
by  the  late  Dr.  Bertiilon,  that  in  the  thirty  departments  of 
France  where  there  are  the  greatest  number  of  proprietors  of 
land,  285  per  1000  inhabitants,  the  birth-rate  is  only  24*7, 
against  28-1  in  those  departments  where  there  are  only  177 
proprietors  per  1000  of  the  population.  The  professional 
classes  in  France  are  so  thoughtful  in  regard  to  the  number  of 
children  they  bring  into  the  world,  that  they  do  not  have 
quite  two  children  (1*75)  to  a  family ;  whilst  the  average 
children  to  a  family  in  France  does  not  exceed  3,  against  5  in 
Germany,  4|  in  England,  5|-  in  Scotland,  and  5^  in  poor  and 
distressed  Ireland.  How  true  it  is,  then,  what  James  Mill 
and  Mr.  Francis  Place  predicted ! 

Universally  we  may  say  of  modern  Europeans,  that  the 
poorer  classes  are  less  prudent  in  the  size  of  their  families  ; 
and,  indeed,  it  has  been  said  by  M.  de  Haussonville  ("La  vie 
et  les  salaires  a  Paris  ")  that  the  number  of  children  to  a  family 
in  the  poor  quarters  of  Paris  is  three  times  as  great  as  it  is  in 
the  rich  quarters.  The  same  story  holds  nearly  true  in  mod- 
ern London  since  1877 — i.e.,  since  the  date  of  the  trial  of  Mr. 
Charles  Bradlaugh  and  Mrs.  Annie  Besant ;  for  the  birth-rate 
in  Kensington  is  at  present  20  per  1000,  against  40  per  1000 
in  Bethnal  Green,  a  result  which  is  yearly  becoming  due  rather 
to  small  families  in  the  West  End  than  to  late  marriages  or 
celibacy,  the  old-fashioned  causes  of  lower  birth-rates.  The 
celebrated  cases  of  "  Regina  v.  Bradlaugh  and  Besant,"  "  Be- 
gina  V.  Edward  Truelove,"  and,  at  this  moment,  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  of  Edinburgh  against  the  esteemed  and 
learned  physician.  Dr.  H.  A.  Allbutt,  of  Leeds,  who  is  threat- 


(118^ 

ened  by  that  body  with  expulsion  from  the  list  of  its  members, 
because  he  has  published,  in  a  popular  work  of  a  practical 
character,  what  has  been  said  so  many  times,  that  large  fami- 
lies lead  to  early  death,  prostitution,  and  every  horror  to  which 
mortality  is  subject,  have  disclosed  the  fact  that  there  is  an 
idea  strongly  implanted  in  the  minds  of  the  majority  of  man- 
kind, that,  if  people  in  general  knew,  especially  at  an  early 
age,  what  any  medical  student  knows  as  soon  as  he  commences 
to  study  anatomy  and  physiology,  vice  and  profligacy  would 
immediately  abound.  This  is,  indeed,  a  strange  idea.  Civil- 
isation differs  from  savage  life  mainly  in  that  civilised  men 
know  more  of  nature  than  savages  ;  but,  just  on  that  very  ac- 
count, civilised  people  are  more  moral  than  savages.  "  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  understand,"  says  M.  Joseph  Gamier, 
**  how  the  counsels  of  marital  prudence  can  lead  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  marriage  and  the  debauchery  of  the  young.  Has  not 
prudence  the  effect  of  rendering  the  state  of  marriage  more 
happy  and  more  attractive  ?  Youth  is  encouraged  to  marriage 
more  easily  by  the  example  of  prosperous  and  wisely  managed 
households  than  by  the  example  of  households  crushed  under 
the  tortures  of  misery."  And  M.  Villerm^,  one  of  the  greatest 
writers  on  Health  that  this  century  has  produced,  mentions 
that  the  workmen  of  La  Croix  Rouge,  Lyons,  had,  in  his  day, 
an  average  of  only  3J  children  to  a  family  ;  and  that  "  these 
workmen  were  the  foremost  in  France  for  behavior  and  dig- 
nity of  character.'-'  "  The  question  is,"  says  a  distinguished 
Vice-President  of  the  Malthusian  League,  Mr.  Van  Houten, 
Deputy  at  the  Hague,  "  whether  morality  can  demand  that  a 
married  couple  shall  have  offspring  immediately  after  their 
marriage  ;  that  constantly,  as  soon  as  the  mother,  after  giving 
birth  to  one,  is  able,  a  second  one  should  at  once  succeed  the 
first.  The  question  is,  whether  those  less  blessed  with  worldly 
goods  must  restrain  their  desires  and  remain  celibates,  because 
they  are  unable,  while  following  the  traditional  morality,  to 
provide  for  a  familj^  ?  Or  whether  those  whose  inclination 
for  one  another,  or  whose  trust  in  the  future  was  too  gieat  when 
their  expectations  proved  decei)tive,  must  be  condemned,  in 
the  name  of  morality-,  to  procreate  children  who  will  be  in- 
sufficiently fed,  tended  and  educated,  and  can  never  become 
energetic  citizens,  or  who,  if  sickly,  are  born  only  to  descend 
speedily  to  the  grave,  to  be  succeeded  by  others  equally  un- 
fortunrite."'  Mr.  Van  Houten  truly  sajs  :  "  An  end  must  be 
put  to  our  ignorance  of  physiology.  Everyone  ought  to  knoivj 
and  it  must  be  left  to  his  own  requirements  and  to  his  own 
judgment  what  use  he  will  make  of  his  knowledge." 


(119) 

How  dacgerous  such  superstitions  as  those  referred  to  by  Mr. 
Van  Houten  are  to  the  happiness  of  mankind  is  best  seen  in 
the  old  civilisations  of  Hindostan  and  China.  Owing  to  cer- 
tain strange  doctrines  in  those  countries  as  to  the  importance 
©f  children  as  a  religious  duty,  the  unfortunate  Hindoo  people 
are  so  terribly  over-peopled  that  a  man  will  work  hard  for 
wages  equivalent  to  six  shillings  a  month.  The  most  learned 
of  Italian  medical  writers  on  health,  Senator  Paulo  Mantegazza, 
mentions  that  his  work  was  placed  on  the  Index  by  the  Pope 
of  Rome  in  1863,  because  he  had  ventured  to  recommend  to 
persons  afflicted  with  hereditary  disease,  such  as  insanity  or 
epilepsy,  or  to  excessively  poor  people,  to  marry  but  to  have 
as  few  children  as  possible.  When  two  human  beings  (says 
that  author)  love  each  other,  and  yet  from  the  bad  health  of 
one  or  both  of  them  there  is  every  likelihood  that  diseased 
children  will  result,  is  it  a  greater  fault  to  engender  epileptic, 
insane,  or  scrofulous  children,  or  to  prevent  such  births  ?  Or 
when,  from  the  excessive  increase  of  the  family  itself,  human 
beings  are  brought  into  the  world  almost  inexorably  con- 
demned to  hunger,  to  degradation,  to  disease,  is  it  a  greater 
sin  to  limit  the  number  of  children  or  to  increase  the  sufferings 
of  the  human  family  ?  "  What  reply  ought  we  to  give  ? 
Whilst  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  of  Edinburgh  is  dis- 
playing to  the  denizens  of  the  end  of  the  19th  century,  an 
amount  of  ignorance  and  conventional  bigotry  which  will  be 
incredible  to  the  next  generation,  it  is  remarkable  that  what 
is  usually  considered  the  most  benighted  Church  in  Christen- 
dom, the  Holy  Catholic  Apostolic  Roman  Church,  has  latterly 
shown  evident  signs  of  admitting  thatNeo-Malthusian  practices, 
which  are  so  habitually  made  use  of  in  France,  must  at  least 
be  acknowledged  to  be  morally  innocent.  Thus,  in  1870,  the 
Vatican  Council  was  implored  by  a  French  priest,  Dr.  Fried- 
rich,  to  reconsider  its  judgment  on  conjugal  prudence  :  "  and 
not  to  cause  the  damnation  of  so  many  millions  of  souls  by 
letting  the  directors  (confessors)  lay  upon  their  consciences, 
commands  or  prohibitions  impossible  to  observe.  It  will  be 
our  duty  (he  exclaims)  to  search  in  the  holy  books  alone 
for  condemnation  of  the  act  in  question  ;  if  it  be  found  to 
be  forbidden  neither  by  the  decalogue  nor  by  the  other  laws  of 
God  contained  in  Holy  Writ,  nor  by  the  apostles,  nor  by  the 
commands  of  the  Church  assembled  in  Council  General,  nor 
by  the  Pope  speaking  ex  cathedra,  we  shall  say  it  (conjugal 
prudence)  cannot  be  condemned  by  anyone  "  Dr.  Friedrich 
continues :  "  A   learned  and  holy   devotee  of  a  very  austere 


Order  says  :  *  I  have  studied  this  case  with  all  the  powers  of 
ray  intelligence  and  of  my  conscience,  and  I  have  corae  to  this 
formal  conviction,  that  we  are  on  the  wrong  track.  To  my 
mind,  this  act  is  enormously  below  the  smallest  mortal  sin, 
and  it  is  enormously  lessened  by  all  the  motives  that  provoke 
it,  real  motives  of  health,  even  of  interest,  of  family,  &c.' '' 
Lastly,  he  informs  us  that  Rome  has  enjoined  on  confessors  to 
question  very  little  and  to  dwell  as  little  as  possible  upon  this 
subject.  Surely,  afier  this,  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  of 
Edinburgh  might  hesitate !  What  Rome  has  done,  other 
churches  might  surely  do  ;  and  I  am  plea^^ed  to  say  that  many 
excellent  members  of  the  Englis;h  Establishment  are  inclined 
to  side  with  the  Malthusian  League  in  its  earnest  recommenda- 
tion to  all  classes  of  the  community  to  replace  the  heartrending 
positive  checks  to  population — war,  pestilence,  and  famine — 
and  the  torturing  agonies  of  prolonged  celibacy,  which  Dr. 
Bertillon's  statistics  show  to  be  so  inimical  even  to  longevity, 
by  the  far  more  humane  and  rational  plan  of  early  marriage 
conjoined  with  very  much  smaller  families  than  are  at  the  pre- 
sent time  the  fashion  among  all  classes.  Some  check  to  popu- 
lation we  must  submit  to  ;  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt 
in  my  own  mind  that  the  morality  of  the  near  future  will  look 
upon  the  production  of  large  families  in  European  states  as  the 
most  anti-social  of  all  the  actions  of  a  citizen.  Then,  and  not 
till  then,  will  indigence  disappear  from  the  face  of  all  civilised 
society. 


3  1158  00693  4177 


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